Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Bloomberg reports:
The U.S. Supreme Court left intact a Mississippi law that lets businesses and government workers refuse on religious grounds to provide services to gay and transgender people. The justices turned away two appeals by state residents and organizations that contended the measure violates the Constitution. A federal appeals court said the opponents hadn’t suffered any injury that would let them press their claims in court.
The Mississippi fight in some ways represented the flip side of a Colorado case the high court is currently considering; the question in that instance is whether the state can require a baker who sells wedding cakes to make one for a same-sex couple’s wedding. The Mississippi law, by contrast, gives priority to religious rights. The state enacted its law less than a year after the 2015 Supreme Court ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
BREAKING: Disappointed to learn that #SCOTUS has declined to hear our case against #HB1523, Mississippi’s discriminatory anti-#LGBTQ “religious freedom” law. #HB1523Hurts
— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) January 8, 2018
If you are in Mississippi and you have faced or fear anti-#LGBTQ discrimination, PLEASE get in touch. We and @justice4ms are here to help. #HB1523 #HB1523Hurts https://t.co/VsfW8m6sSk
— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) January 8, 2018
#HB1523 invites gov’t agencies, businesses, individuals and some medical/social services to deny service and discriminate against a large section of the general public, including but not limited to #LGBTQ people. #HB1523Hurts
— Lambda Legal (@LambdaLegal) January 8, 2018