Bryan Fischer Is Mixing Up His Lies

"The openly lesbian mayor of Houston, Annise Parker, has issued subpoenas for 17 different forms of communication, both public and private, from pastors who oppose her 'bathroom bill,' the ordinance that guarantees the right of men to walk in on your daughter while she’s in the shower at the local Y. In the process, she has violated every single right enshrined in the First Amendment. She has violated the right of these pastors to the free exercise of religion, because they are motivated by their sincerely held beliefs about gender differences that come from the Creator God who made us male and female. She has violated their rights to free speech, since she wants to shut them up. She wants to penalize them for speech they have already uttered. In fact, she wants to throw them in jail, because that’s what happens to people who defy subpoenas." - Bryan Fischer, writing for the American Family Association.

OOPSIE: Fischer has apparently forgotten his regular claim that the First Amendment only applies to Congress. From his September 17th column for OneNewsNow:

First, the amendment applies only to Congress. "Congress shall make no law..." No other entity is restrained by the First Amendment. Since the amendment applies only to Congress, it is legally, historically and constitutionally impossible for a state, a county commission, a city council, a school board, a school principal, a school teacher or a student to violate the First Amendment. This is for one simple reason: none of them is Congress. Violating the First Amendment is something only Congress can do.

OOPSIE II: Fischer has also claimed that the First Amendment only applies to Christians. Congress, obviously, includes many non-Christians.

I have contended for years that the First Amendment, as given by the Founders, provides religious liberty protections for Christianity only. Most attorney types, befuddled by years of untethered Supreme Court activism, think it covers any and all religions you can name. The results of this expansive but badly misguided understanding of the First Amendment have not been too costly to this point.