Should Texas businesses be able to deny service based on conscience?

Marco Roberts wants Texans to be able to pick and choose the jobs they’d like to do, based on what their conscience tells them is the right thing to do.

This doesn’t have to do with religious liberties, or specifically denying jobs from same-sex couples, he said. It’s just about First Amendment rights.

So he asked Texas Republicans on Tuesday to add a “freedom of conscience” plank — which would let businesses turn down work they don’t agree with if it means creating a product that doesn’t currently exist such as a painting, cake or floral arrangement — to the party’s platform.

“This doesn’t allow a business to refuse service generically,” said Roberts, a delegate from Houston. “They can only refuse to create a new product or do expressive work.”

He stressed that this wouldn’t allow businesses to violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Opponents disagree, saying this is the latest salvo in the continuing battle against same-sex marriage in Texas, whose 2005 ban against same-sex civil unions and marriages was overturned last year by a landmark Supreme Court ruling.

“It is sad the Republicans want to grant people the right to discriminate,” said Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. “There is no need to take us back to the dark days of our country’s past when individuals were refused service because of who they were.”

The freedom of conscience plank is among many proposals Texas Republicans will consider adding to their party platform during their state convention, which runs Thursday through Saturday at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.

GOP State Convention

Thousands of Republicans are expected to gather for the three-day event geared to boost enthusiasm for the presidential election, approve party rules and a platform, choose delegates to the national convention and pick a state party chair.

A proposal to shrink the party’s 40-page mission statement, an outline of the party’s beliefs, was rejected this week.

Texas Republicans’ party platform has drawn massive media attention in recent years for controversial positions such as changing stances on immigration and supporting reparative therapy to help gay Texans reject their homosexual lifestyle.

For the first time this year, delegates won’t approve the overall party platform by a voice vote. They will discuss proposed planks, as usual, and then each delegate will use a scan tron ballot to vote on whether or not to include every single plank.

Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will be among the state officials kicking off the convention Thursday; U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz a former GOP presidential candidate, is scheduled to rally grassroots Republicans on the closing day of the convention Saturday.

Proposed planks

Proposals reviewed and approved by subcommittees this week included urging lawmakers to legalize constitutional carry, remove gun-free zones, call for an Article V convention, ban red-light cameras and defund sanctuary cities.

The freedom of conscience resolution, which was approved by the Promoting Individual Freedom Subcommittee, was among those that sparked discussion among delegates.

If it is approved this week, Texas would be the first state to pass such a proposal, Roberts said.

The proposed plank states: “That legislation at the state and federal level be passed that concretely defines public accommodations as originally defined and understood in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, that it prohibit any expansion of that legal definition by any federal, state or local law to expand government control to restrict any First Amendment rights; and to proscribe any law that requires any private business or individual to create or provide a custom product or service, or any kind of expressive work, or enter into a contract, or be coerced into any speech that is not their own.”

“It reframes the argument in a way that uses a legal and existing law as the basis to protect individual consciences,” said H Scott Apley, a delegate and a member of the individual freedom subcommittee. “It articulates that it’s not a religious issue.”

Roberts said the proposal would protect Texas businesses.

“A lot of folks are focused on the same-sex issue, which has made it difficult to get to the real issue: the First Amendment,” he said. “The fundamental issue is what First Amendment rights do we have and how do they balance?

“I hope it paves a way for Republicans of different stripes to find common ground,” Roberts said. “This protects the rights of everybody.”

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 2:59 PM with the headline "Should Texas businesses be able to deny service based on conscience?."