'Straight up wrong': Texas conservatives defend Dallas salon owner jailed for keeping open business
Source: The Dallas Morning News
Several prominent Texas conservatives on Wednesday rallied to the defense of Shelley Luther, the Dallas salon owner who was fined and sentenced to seven days in jail for intentionally violating an order to shutter her business during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Gov. Greg Abbott, who’s reopening hair salons on Friday after deeming them nonessential for weeks, said Shelley’s sentence was “excessive,” adding that “jailing Texans for non-compliance with executive orders should always be the last available option.”
“Compliance with executive orders during this pandemic is important to ensure public safety,” said Abbott, a Republican who issued one of the orders defied by Luther. "However, surely there are less restrictive means to achieving that goal than jailing a Texas mother.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, also a Republican, called Luther’s sentence “outrageous” and demanded that she be released from jail, while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, another Republican, offered to pay Luther’s $7,000 fine or even serve out Luther’s sentence under house arrest.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2020/05/06/straight-up-wrong-texas-conservatives-defend-dallas-salon-owner-jailed-for-keeping-open-business-amid-coronavirus/
The judge in this case responded in a letter in part: "It is contrary to the concept of an independent Judiciary and offends the tradition of separation of powers for any member of the Executive Branch of Texas government to interject itself into the proceedings of the judicial branch."
Guess what...even Sarah Palin came to Dallas to show support for Luther's business.
To be wonky, Article 4, Section 11(b) of the Texas Constitution says:
That probably explains why Abbott can't just give Luther a governor's pardon right now.
= new reply since forum marked as read
