LGBTQ/SUPREME COURT: “The Supreme Court declined Monday [1-8-18] to consider a challenge to a Mississippi law authorizing individuals and merchants to deny service to same-sex couples on the basis of ‘sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.’
The brief order comes as the justices grapple with a case posing many of the same issues in a different context: a Colorado baker’s claim that the First Amendment exempts him from a civil-rights law requiring him to sell wedding cakes to same-sex couples on the same terms as heterosexual customers. The baker, Jack Phillips of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., says his Christian beliefs frown on same-sex marriage; the case was argued in December and a decision is expected before July.
The Mississippi case was the latest example of the legal fallout following the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision extending marriage rights to same-sex couples, Obergefell v. Hodges.
In contrast to Colorado, where lawmakers sought to protect gay people from discrimination, Mississippi acted to buttress the ability to deny them service. It is unclear, however, how the 2016 state statute, the Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act, adds to Mississippians’ existing freedom to treat gay people differently; like most states and the federal government, Mississippi law doesn’t specifically protect gay people from discrimination.”
-Jess Bravin, “High Court Won’t Hear Challenge to State Law Letting Merchants Refuse Service to Gay People,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 8, 2018 10:30am