WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a Mississippi law that would let businesses and government workers refuse service to LGBTQ people if they had a religious objection.
Bloomberg reported that the court turned away two appeals by state residents and organizations that contended the measure violates the Constitution. A federal appeals court said the opponents hadn’t suffered any injury that would let them press their claims in court.
According to The Hill, the court’s refusal to hear the case leaves intact the law, known as H.B. 1523, that says “the state government will not take any discriminatory action against persons who don’t believe in same-sex marriage, homosexuality and transgenderism.”
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s decision today leaves LGBT people in Mississippi in the crosshairs of hate and humiliation, delaying justice and equality,” said Beth Littrell of Lambda Legal told NBC OUT.
From NBC OUT:
Signed into law in 2016 in response to the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling, it allows county clerks to avoid issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples and protects businesses from lawsuits if they refuse to serve LGBT customers.
The law was immediately challenged. But lower courts, without ruling on the merits of the law, said those suing could not show that they would be harmed by it.
“Under this current record, the plaintiffs have not shown an injury-in-fact caused by HB 1523 that would empower the district court or this court to rule on its constitutionality,” the court said, according to The Hill. “We do not foreclose the possibility that a future plaintiff may be able to show clear injury-in-fact that satisfies the ‘irreducible constitutional minimum of standing,’ but the federal courts must withhold judgment unless and until that plaintiff comes forward.”