Texas Joins Multi-State Coalition Decrying Court Challenge to 'Religious Freedom' Law in Mississippi

AUSTIN, TX — Texas on Thursday filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit which challenges a court ruling the state says runs counter to Mississippi's religious freedom law, officials announced.

Lawmakers in the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature have shown eagerness in joining in opposition to laws they sense interfere with religious freedoms, given their evangelical voter bloc that comprises much of their political base. Even when lacking such developments in Texas, conservatives in the state enthusiastically join multi-state efforts in expressing such opposition.

Such is the case here, centered on a law that was passed and later blocked by a court not in Texas, but in Mississippi.

It's called the Religious Liberty Accommodations Act, also known as the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act or House Bill 1523, a 2016 law that protects the following beliefs: 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 Mississippi law also states the state government there shall not take any discriminatory action against a religious organization as it relates to issuing marriages, employment (including state employees), sale, rental, housing, adoption, declining to participate in sex reassignment surgery, conversion therapy, or services that accommodate or facilitate marriages "based upon or in a manner consistent with a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction."

This legislation was to take effect July 1, 2016, but a U.S. District Court judge the month before issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law. Three days before that, the judge issued a permanent injunction requiring government officials to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples regardless of the officials' religious beliefs.

Enter Texas, which now has thrust itself into the leadership role of a nine-state coalition challenging the court ruling that blocked the law. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the joining of Texas in the multi-state law in the friend-of-the-court brief filed with the district court.

“The law in Mississippi simply affirms what the U.S. Supreme Court professed in Obergefell: that religious men and women be ‘given proper protection’ to exercise their faith,” Paxton said in a prepared statement. “Americans have the right to peacefully live and work according to their deeply held beliefs, in accordance with the religious freedoms enshrined in our Constitution. We look forward to the Fifth Circuit upholding this religious liberty protection on appeal.”

Mississippi’s Religious Liberty Accommodations Act reinforces existing religious freedom rights, does not limit any constitutionally protected rights or actions and does not challenge federal law, Paxton contends. Among other things, the law protects the freedom of conscience for state employees who may refuse to license marriages and for individuals who decline to provide certain medical services, he added in his prepared statement.

In addition to Texas, the other states who joined the amicus brief are Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah, along with Maine Governor Paul LePage.

To view the full text of the amicus brief, click here.

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