Among the many abhorrent provisions included in Mississippi's sweeping anti-LGBT law, one stands apart for its legal vulnerabilities: the provision allowing circuit clerks to refuse licenses to same-sex couples based on their religious beliefs. In fact, that provision has already been struck down, not only by the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling but by a subsequent decision overturning Mississippi's gay adoption ban.
Now the attorney who vanquished the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) at the Supreme Court in 2013, Roberta Kaplan, is taking on Gov. Phil Bryant's unconstitutional provision, reports Mark Joseph Stern:
Kaplan emerged as Mississippi’s fiercest LGBTQ rights defender after toppling the federal same-sex marriage ban back in 2013. Two years later, Kaplan secured a victory against Mississippi’s same-sex marriage ban then successfully fought to overturn Mississippi’s anti-gay adoption law. Notably, her July victory took the form of a permanent injunction barring the state from restricting same-sex couples’ marriage rights in any way. So when Mississippi passed its latest anti-LGBTQ legislation, Kaplan knew what to do: She simply asked to reopen the marriage case, asking the judge, Carlton W. Reeves, to enjoin the state from implementing HB 1523’s marriage segregation provision.
Kaplan’s case should be—and very likely will be—a slam dunk. Reeves’ injunction barred all “agents, officers, employees, and subsidiaries” of Mississippi from treating same-sex couples differently from opposite-sex couples.
Of course, Mississippi has gone all in on this losing battle because, as Kaplan notes in her latest reply brief, they consider it a crusade.
Indeed, rather than express a “willingness to meet constitutional requirements,” Governor Bryant recently stated in a public address that the “secular, progressive” opponents of HB 1523 “don’t know that if it takes crucifixion, we will stand in line before abandoning our faith and our belief in our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ.”
Go on with your bad self, Phil Bryant! Go down with the ship. We're rooting for you!
Needless to say, Bryant doesn't appear to be firing on all cylinders. My money's on Kaplan.