Pastor Brown Files Appeal With Texas Supreme Court To Overturn Decision Halting Recall

The fight to recall El Paso Mayor John Cook and two city representatives continues.

?We filed with Texas Supreme Court today to hopefully overrule the appellate court so we can still have a recall,? Pastor Tom Brown posted on his Twitter account on Wednesday afternoon.

According to the Texas Supreme Court website, a petition for review has been filed and a motion to stay has been filed. The website does not state at this time if the Texas Supreme Court has accepted the filings.

On Feb. 26 at his church, Word of Life, Brown talked from the pulpit about an affidavit his lawyers had planned to send to the Texas Supreme Court. In the affidavit, those who signed it stated that they are afraid to speak in public about the recall of City-elected officials out of fear that they’ll be arrested or have liability within a civil court.

The Eighth Court of Appeals, made up of Chief Justice Ann Crawford McClure, Justice Guadalupe Rivera, and Justice Chris Antcliff, ruled unanimously on Feb. 20 that petitioners broke the Texas Election Code by not re-purposing their political action committee – El Pasoans For Traditional Family Values – for the recall efforts.

Originally, El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values was classified as a PAC for the 2010 ballot initiative meant to take away the health insurance of gay and unwed partners of city employees, not as a recall group.

Brown started the recall efforts because Cook, City Rep. Susie Byrd, and City Rep. Steve Ortega did not implement a November 2010 voter-approved ordinance to take away the health insurance of gay and unmarried partners of city employees.

The way city attorneys interpreted the voter-approved initiative, more than 100 unintended people would also lose their health insurance if the ordinance would have taken effect. The ordinance was written by El Pasoans for Traditional Family Values, the same group trying to recall the mayor.

The group wrote the ordinance without the help of an attorney after El Paso City Council extended health benefits to 19 city domestic partners. Ordinance supporters said they did not want their tax dollars funding the health benefits of unmarried couples and people in homosexual relationships, which some believe are an abomination to God.

The recall election had been set for mid-April until the Eighth Court of Appeals ruling in February.

The mayor’s lawyer in the past has called this case an interlocutory appeal, meaning Judge Javier Alvarez made a ruling before the case was over. For the Supreme Court to hear that, there would have to be dissent from the three justices on the appeals court.

That is not the case here because the decision was unanimous. There would also have to be a conflicting opinion from another appeals court. ABC-7 couldn’t find one.

However, the state Supreme Court has ultimate discretion when deciding what cases to take on. If it decides the petitioners’ case has statewide importance, they may hear it.