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Mississippi 'Religious Objections' Law Called Unconstitutional

CBN

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Mississippi Republican Gov. Phil Bryant is requesting that a federal appeals court uphold a state law that will allow merchants and government employees to deny serving same-sex couples for religious reasons.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves blocked the religious objections law before it took effect on July 1. He ruled that it unconstitutionally establishes preferred beliefs and is not equal for the LGBT community.

The law backed by Gov. Bryant protects three Christian beliefs:

  • Marriage is only between a man and a woman.
  • Sex should only take place in such a marriage.
  • A person's gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered.

Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood declined to appeal Reeves' ruling.

Now the case is in the hands of private attorneys, including lawyers from Alliance Defending Freedom. The Christian legal group helped draft the law, and Bryant signed it last April.

The measure "gives the opponents of same-sex marriage the same conscientious-objector protections that federal law confers on the opponents of warfare, abortion, capital punishment and physician-assisted suicide," attorneys for the governor wrote in arguments filed Wednesday at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The law also would have allowed clerks to avoid issuing same-sex marriage licenses by claiming religious objections. The law reportedly could have also had an effect on adoptions and foster care, business practices, and school bathroom policies.

According to UCLA professor Douglas NeJaime, who testified before Reeves, Mississippi was the only state to enact a law listing specific beliefs to be protected.

The Mississippi law was backed by Baptist and Pentecostal groups in the state. The Washington-based Family Research Council gave Bryant an award for signing it.

Opponents protested outside the governor's mansion in Jackson and executives of several large companies, including Coca-Cola Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., called the law discriminatory and said legislators should repeal it.

Multiple lawsuits from gay rights supporters tried to overturn the law.

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