Obama-appointed judge again halts Mississippi’s religious freedom law
An Obama-appointed judge has denied the
citizens of Mississippi the protections of a religious freedom bill while the
legislation works its way through the appeals process.
U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves denied the
state’s motion allowing it to enforce the "Protecting Freedom of
Conscience from Government Discrimination Act" (H.B. 1523), which
Republican Governor
Phil Bryant signed April
5.
The bill would allow citizens with sincere
faith-based objections to opt out of participating in same-sex “marriage”
ceremonies, place children in the care of same-sex couples, or rent their homes
to homosexuals, among other provisions.
State clerks could decline to issue a marriage
license or perform a wedding ceremony if they could find another employee
willing to do so.
The state had invoked conscience laws that
prevent people from being forced to participate in abortions, but Judge Reeves
said the two situations bore no similarities.
“Issuing a marriage license to a gay couple is
not like being forced into armed combat or to assist with an abortion,” he
wrote in a six-page opinion issued yesterday. “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."
“The baton is now passed,” he wrote.
However, some citizens believe participating
in an action they believe is sinful transcends life and death, condemning their
souls for eternity.
"This is a
Heaven-or-Hell issue for me and
for every other Christian that believes,”Kim Davis,
a born again Christian, told Fox News last September. “This is a fight worth
fighting."
Reeves enjoined
the law on
June 30, calling it nothing more than an “attempt to put LGBT citizens back in
their place.”
As of this writing, neither Gov. Bryant nor
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves had responded to the latest ruling, which the governor had
already petitioned the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, to
review.
Judge Reeves invalidated the state's marriage
protection statute in 2014, labeling it“state-sanctioned
prejudice.”
Reeves served on the board of the ACLU before
being appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2010.