Court allows Mississippi to enforce LGBT religious objections law

Source: The Hill | June 24, 2017 | Josh Delk

A federal appeals court said this week that Mississippi can enforce a law allowing private citizens, merchants and federal employees to deny services to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender individuals on religious grounds.

The three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued the decision overturning a previous decision blocking enforcement of the law, the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, according to reports.

The law was signed by Gov. Phil Bryant (R) in 2016. The plaintiffs immediately appealed the ruling, and lawyers say that enforcement will remain blocked during the appeals process. 

Thursday’s decision stated that the plaintiffs challenging the act had no standing before the law because it had not affected or injured them, and the panel did not rule on the constitutionality of the law.

“None of these plaintiffs has clearly shown an injury-of-fact, so none has standing,” the judges wrote in the 16-page decision.

A federal judge filed an injunction on the law last June before it could take effect, citing that it violated the first and 14th amendments.

“As I have said all along, the legislation is not meant to discriminate against anyone, but simply prevents government interference with the constitutional right to exercise sincerely held religious beliefs,” Bryant said in a statement Thursday.

The law aims to protect traditional marriages after the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages. It would allow government clerks to cite religious objections to certifying marriage licenses to same-sex couples, and allow businesses to deny marriage-related services to LGBT people if such services were to violate a “sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction.”

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