Federal judge blocks Mississippi law protecting gay-marriage bias based on religious beliefs
A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law that protects those who discriminate based on a religious belief against gay marriage, premarital sex and transgender recognition.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves of Jackson, Mississippi, issued a preliminary injunction on Thursday that blocks the law, known as HB 1523, report the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Clarion-Ledger.
Reeves said the law violates the establishment clause because it has “put its thumb on the scale to favor some religious beliefs over others.” The law also violates the equal protection clause, he said, because it authorizes arbitrary discrimination against lesbian, gay, transgender and unmarried persons.
The law, set to go into effect on July 1, bars state government from taking action against those who act on their religious beliefs that marriages should be between a man and a woman, that sexual relations are “properly reserved to such a marriage,” and that gender is fixed at birth.
The law protects those who refuse to provide counseling services, fertility services, facility rentals and wedding services based on those beliefs. And it protects those who raise foster children consistent with those beliefs and those who implement restroom polices based on the beliefs.
“In other words,” Reeves wrote in explaining the law, “the state of Mississippi will not tax you, penalize you, fire you, deny you a contract, withhold a diploma or license, modify a custody agreement, or retaliate against you, among many other enumerated things, for your … beliefs.”
Reeves blocked another provision of the law on Monday that allows court clerks to refuse to give wedding licenses to gay couples as long as the couples can receive the licenses from other state employees.
