Breaking: Federal Judge Slams Mississippi Governor Over Anti-LGBT Law, Refuses to Allow Enforcement

Judge Warns Governor on Anti-Gay Animus

A federal judge has again refused to allow Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant to enforce the nation’s most anti-LGBT law. HB 1523 effectively allows almost any person, group, organization, or company to refuse to serve LGBT people, especially same-ex couples or anyone who has ever had sex outside of “traditional marriage,” if they claim so doing would violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. 

U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves late Monday afternoon refused Gov. Bryant’s request to stay his earlier ruling, handed down one month ago on July 1, which halted enforcement of HB 1523, and called it “state-sanctioned discrimination.”

“HB 1523’s absence does not impair the free exercise of religion,” Judge Reeves writes.

“In addition,” Judge Reeves writes, as Buzzfeed reports, “issuing a marriage license to a gay couple is not like being forced into armed combat or to assist with an abortion. Matters of life and death are sui generis. If movants truly believe that providing services to LGBT citizens forces them to ‘tinker with the machinery of death,’ their animus exceeds anything seen in Romer, Windsor, or the marriage equality cases.”

What Judge Reeves is saying, and effectively, threatening, is there is no comparison between a self-decribed person of faith having to issue a same-sex couple a license to marry, and being forced into deadly military service or being forced to assist in an abortion. And, Judge Reeves’ statement suggests, should Gov. Bryant continue with that argument – as with all civil rights cases that are decided based on the motive and intent of the lawmakers who passed those bills – if anti-LGBT animus is at the heart of HB 1523, it will be overturned by every court that reviews it.

 

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated, and NCRM will likely publish follow-up stories on this news. Stay tuned and refresh for updates.

EARLIER:

The Remarkable Judge Carlton Reeves

WATCH: Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant Says He’s Willing to Die in Support of Anti-LGBT Discrimination

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