The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has reversed a federal trial court’s decision halting the implementation of one the harshest anti-gay laws in the country, ruling that LGBT plaintiffs do not have standing to challenge a Mississippi measure that allows for discrimination based on a person’s religious beliefs.
In his decision, Judge Jerry Smith wrote that the plaintiffs could not prove they’d been injured by the law. The plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of the new Mississippi statute, known as HB 1523, which dictates that state government shall not take any “discriminatory action” against those who deny employment, housing, or the placement of foster or adoptive children to LGBT people because of “religious beliefs of moral convictions.”
