A federal judge issued a stinging rebuke of Mississippi's discriminatory HB 1523 law Thursday night, blocking it from going into effect. It marked first finding by a federal judge that so-called "religious liberty" bills targeting LGBTQ people violate the U.S. Constitution. The law would have allowed people with religious objections to same-sex marriage and transgender individuals to broadly discriminate against LGBTQ Americans and others, reports Larrison Campbell:
In a blistering opinion that reached into Mississippi's segregationist past, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves said House Bill 1523, signed by Gov. Phil Bryant in April, was another unfortunate example of Mississippi trying to write discrimination into its laws.
"Religious freedom was one of the building blocks of this great nation, and after the nation was torn apart, the guarantee of equal protection under law was used to stitch it back together. But HB 1523 does not honor that tradition of religion freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi’s citizens," Reeves wrote in his opinion.
Mark Joseph Stern called the "drubbing" so thorough for anti-LGBT activists that it "calls into question the viability of their entire strategy post-Obergefell.”
Friday, Jul 1, 2016 · 9:30:57 PM +00:00
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Kerry Eleveld
UPDATE: Looks like the state’s Attorney General might not appeal the ruling:
“In consideration of the individual rights of all our citizens, the state's current budget crisis and the cost of appeal, I will have to think long and hard about spending taxpayer money to appeal the case against me. An appeal could cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars. For example, North Carolina has set aside $500,000 for defense of its bathroom law...”
Reeves explains: In reality, HB 1523 “establishes an official preference for certain religious beliefs over others,” a quintessential violation of the Establishment Clause. Anti-LGBTQ religious beliefs are explicitly favored; adherents to those beliefs receive a special right to discriminate that is unavailable to all others. [...] This favoring of certain religious sects is especially problematic because it “comes at the expense of other citizens,” namely LGBTQ people. [emphasis added]
Anyone else remember when homophobes accused LGBTQ folks of wanting “special rights” because they wanted access to the same constitutional freedoms that everyone else has? Yeah, the worm has turned. Naturally, Gov. Phil Bryant promised an "aggressive appeal," because when it comes to bigotry, old habits die hard.
