Judge Blocks Mississippi Law Protecting Religious Objections To Gay Marriage July 1, 2016·7:24 AM ET
Almost at the last minute, a federal judge has declared a controversial Mississippi law unconstitutional.
The law, HB 1523, would have protected religious objections to gay marriage, extramarital sex and transgender identities. The judge says it favors some religious beliefs over others and would codify unequal treatment of LGBT people.
The Rev. Chris Donald, a Methodist chaplain at Millsaps College, joins other human rights advocates Wednesday at the state Capitol's rotunda, calling for the Mississippi Senate to defeat what they believe is a discriminatory anti-LGBT bill. The Senate passed the bill, which is now on the governor's desk.
The Two-Way
Here's Why Mississippi's 'Religious Freedom' Bill Is So Controversial
Attorneys for the state are expected to appeal the ruling, The Associated Press reports.
As the Two-Way has previously reported, the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act" was described by its proponents as a religious freedom bill. But it didn't protect all religious beliefs. Here's Section 2 of the bill:
The sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions protected by this act are the belief or conviction that:
(a) Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman;
(b) Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage; and
(c) Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual's immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.
Under the law, Mississippi residents who used one of those moral convictions to justify behavior — including individuals declining to offer business or medical services, religious organizations firing or disciplining employees, and state employees refusing to license marriages — could not be punished by the state.
It is difficult to see the compelling government interest in favoring three enumerated religious beliefs over others.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves ruled that the law, instead of protecting religious freedom, violated the First Amendment by essentially endorsing specific religious beliefs over others. Some of the plaintiffs in the case were religious leaders from denominations that do not object to gay marriage.
He also said the law was poised to cause irreparable harm to LGBT residents of Mississippi.
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http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/07/01/484291451/judge-blocks-mississippi-law-protecting-religious-objections-to-gay-marriage
