Unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear an appeal before Tuesday, Oct. 10, Mississippi’s new law that protects the “moral conviction” of people who uphold marriage as being between one man and one woman will take effect.
As it is defined, the law (HB 1523) provides “broad protection of free exercise of religious beliefs and moral convictions,” and would shield people in government and the private sector from having to engage in or facilitate transactions they view as immoral, such as catering for gay marriages, renting rooms to gay couples, or assisting homosexuals to adopt children.
LGBT activists and the legal groups representing them oppose the new law, saying it violates the rights of homosexuals, favoring one group over another group. Mississippi’s governor, Phil Bryant, signed the bill into law in April 2016.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican. (vallartadaily.com)
Although the law was challenged in the courts since then, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June 2017 that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge the law. Last week, the 5th Circuit refused to re-hear the claim by the LGBT activists and their lawyers, represented by the Campaign for Southern Equality. The attorneys are now appealing to the Supreme Court for relief. (As this story went to press, the high court had not responded.
On Wednesday, Gov. Bryant in a statement said, “This law was democratically enacted and is perfectly constitutional. The people of Mississippi have the right to ensure that all of our citizens are free to peacefully live and work without fear of being punished for their sincerely held religious beliefs.”
The law is officially entitled the “Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act.” It is designed to protect from discrimination or prosecution Mississippi citizens who have “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.” These beliefs are defined as follows: “Marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman”; “Sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage”; and, “Male (man) or female (woman) refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex as objectively determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth.”
The law then lists myriad situations in which people who hold those moral convictions would be protected from discrimination or penalty. These include “religious organizations” that decline to solemnize a marriage that violates their beliefs; hire or fire employees who violate their beliefs; sell or rent a dwelling or house to people that violate their beliefs; or provide or facilitate adoption or foster care to people that violate their religious convictions.
The law also protects persons who do not want to participate in or facilitate the adoption of children in a way that violates their beliefs, or in any way assist with sex-reassignment counseling, treatment or surgery.
The gay rainbow flag is displayed outside the U.S. Supreme Court. (nbcnews.com)
