Council member David A. Catania is taking aim at a Washington & Lee School of Law professor who has taken a leading role in trying to carve out more exemptions in the bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

Professor Robin F. Wilson was one of five professors who sent a letter to the council last month asking that religious organizations be given more latitude to deny services for same-sex weddings. Wilson also took concerns public, writing an Op-Ed on the matter in the Washington Post and testifying before a council committee considering the bill.

During that testimony, Catania says Wilson misled the council. On two occasions, he argues, Wilson mischaracterized case law related to religious freedom. Catania, the sponsor of the same-sex marriage bill, fired off a letter to Wilson this morning demanding she recant her previous testimony.

To make his point, Catania sent a copy of his letter to Robert A. Smolla, the president of Washington & Lee, and Rodney A. Smolla, the dean of the law school. He also copied the letter to the Chief Disciplinary Council for the State Bar of Texas, where Wilson is licensed to practice law.

“I am disturbed that you may use your misunderstanding of these cases in future testimony before legislative bodies,” Catania wrote. “I am respectfully asking that you cease these misrepresentations in order to allow an honest discussion of the merits of present and future legislation.”

[Washington Post]