Rep. Julie Johnson, right, on the floor of the Texas House with Rep. Jessica Gonzalez earlier this session. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
State Rep. Julie Johnson called two points of order while the Texas House of Representatives debated HB 3172, one of the so-called religious exemption bills allowing discrimination against LGBT people as long as that discrimination is based on a “sincerely-held religious belief.”
Johnson’s first point of order was over-ruled, but the second one stuck. According to Johnson, attached to the bill was a “faulty bill analysis.” In other words, the bill analysis has to accurately describe what the law would do.
Because of a substitute in committee, the analysis no longer matched the bill. Johnson said a clerk “messed up the bill analysis.”
“That was an outright win,” Johnson said. “We haven’t had one in years. We all needed it. Elections matter.” And she encouraged everyone to vote in the upcoming municipal runoffs.
Johnson’s parliamentary tactic killed the bill for this session, but pieces of it could be attached as amendments to other legislation in the remaining weeks of the session.
— David Taffet
