National
Court upholds ruling for Miss. anti-LGBT law — but there’s stinging dissent
Judge cites case challenging Trump’s travel ban as evidence for error
The Fifth Circuit has refused to reconsider a decision in favor of Mississippi “religious freedom” anti-LGBT law.
A federal appeals court announced Friday it wouldn’t reconsider a ruling upholding a sweeping anti-LGBT “religious freedom” law in Mississippi — although one judge has penned a stinging dissent over the refusal.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reconsider the ruling issued in June by a three-judge panel on the court upholding the law. The panel found the plaintiffs in the consolidated cases — one filed by Campaign for Southern Equality, the other by the Joshua Generation Metropolitan Community Church and 13 Mississippi ministers — lack standing to challenge on the basis it violated the Establishment Clause under the First Amendment.
The recorded vote against a rehearing of the decision was 12-2. Among those who dissented was U.S. Circuit Judge James Dennis, a Clinton appointee who said “the court has abdicated its mandate to decide the substantive claims raised by the plaintiffs.”
“Respectfully, the panel opinion is wrong; the plaintiffs have standing to challenge HB 1523 under Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals precedents,” Dennis writes. “The panel opinion misconstrues and misapplies the Establishment Clause precedent, and…its analysis creates a conflict between our circuit and our sister circuits on the issue of Establishment Clause standing.”
Even though plaintiffs aren’t challenging a religious display set up by a government actor, which is sometimes forms the basis for Establishment Clause lawsuits, Dennis writes under the anti-LGBT law “the stigmatic harm suffered by non-adherents is sufficient to establish an injury-in-fact.”
“Because the plaintiffs in this case have alleged such a stigmatic harm, the panel opinion’s dismissal of this case is in error and should have been reversed by the court en banc,” Dennis writes.
Cited by the court as an example of similar case was the Fourth Circuit decision this year in International Refugee Assistance Project v. Trump, which found a Muslim lawful permanent resident of the United States had standing under the Establishment Clause to challenge a President Trump’s order banning immigration from six Muslim-majority countries.
“The panel opinion here states that IRAP is distinguishable because the Executive Order at issue in that case would have barred the plaintiff’s wife from entering the country and thereby prolonged their separation,” Dennis writes. “But while the Fourth Circuit did recognize this effect as an injury sufficient to support standing, it also recognized as a ‘distinct’ injury the fact that the Executive Order ‘sends a state-sanctioned message condemning his religion and causing him to feel excluded and marginalized in his community.'”
As a result of denying standing to plaintiffs in the lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s “religious freedom” law, Dennis writes the Fifth Circuit panel “falls into grievous error, unjustifiably creates a split from our sister circuits, and rejects pertinent Supreme Court teachings.”
Joining Dennis in the dissent was U.S. Circuit Judge James Graves, an Obama appointee.
As a result of the Fifth Circuit decision, the Mississippi “religious freedom” law will go into effect. The measure, signed by Gov. Phil Bryant last year, enables sweeping discrimination against LGBT people.
The law prohibits the state from taking action against religious organizations that decline employment, housing or services to same-sex couples; families who’ve adopted a foster child and wish to act in opposition to same-sex marriage; and individuals who offer wedding services and decline to facilitate a same-sex wedding.
Additionally, the bill allows individuals working in medical services to decline to afford a transgender person gender reassignment surgery. The bill also allows state government employees who facilitate marriages the option to opt out of issuing licenses to same-sex couples, but the person must issue prior written notice to the state government and a clerk’s office must not delay in the issuing of licenses.
There’s one more path in the courts for opponents of the law. Plaintiffs have the option of filing a petition of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the decision.
Robert McDuff, the Jackson, Miss.-based attorney representing plaintiff minsters in the Barber, affirmed “we do” intend to seek review of the decision before the Supreme Court.
New York
Two teens shot steps from Stonewall Inn after NYC Pride parade
One of the victims remains in critical condition
On Sunday night, following the annual NYC Pride March, two girls were shot in Sheridan Square, feet away from the historic Stonewall Inn.
According to an NYPD report, the two girls, aged 16 and 17, were shot around 10:15 p.m. as Pride festivities began to wind down. The 16-year-old was struck in the head and, according to police sources, is said to be in critical condition, while the 17-year-old was said to be in stable condition.
The Washington Blade confirmed with the NYPD the details from the police reports and learned no arrests had been made as of noon Monday.
The shooting took place in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, mere feet away from the most famous gay bar in the city — if not the world — the Stonewall Inn. Earlier that day, hundreds of thousands of people marched down Christopher Street to celebrate 55 years of LGBTQ people standing up for their rights.
In June 1969, after police raided the Stonewall Inn, members of the LGBTQ community pushed back, sparking what became known as the Stonewall riots. Over the course of two days, LGBTQ New Yorkers protested the discriminatory policing of queer spaces across the city and mobilized to speak out — and throw bottles if need be — at officers attempting to suppress their existence.
The following year, LGBTQ people returned to the Stonewall Inn and marched through the same streets where queer New Yorkers had been arrested, marking the first “Gay Pride March” in history and declaring that LGBTQ people were not going anywhere.
New York State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, whose district includes Greenwich Village, took to social media to comment on the shooting.
“After decades of peaceful Pride celebrations — this year gun fire and two people shot near the Stonewall Inn is a reminder that gun violence is everywhere,” the lesbian lawmaker said on X. “Guns are a problem despite the NRA BS.”
New York
Zohran Mamdani participates in NYC Pride parade
Mayoral candidate has detailed LGBTQ rights platform
Zohran Mamdani, the candidate for mayor of New York City who pulled a surprise victory in the primary contest last week, walked in the city’s Pride parade on Sunday.
The Democratic Socialist and New York State Assembly member published photos on social media with New York Attorney General Letitia James, telling followers it was “a joy to march in NYC Pride with the people’s champ” and to “see so many friends on this gorgeous day.”
“Happy Pride NYC,” he wrote, adding a rainbow emoji.
Mamdani’s platform includes a detailed plan for LGBTQ people who “across the United States are facing an increasingly hostile political environment.”
His campaign website explains: “New York City must be a refuge for LGBTQIA+ people, but private institutions in our own city have already started capitulating to Trump’s assault on trans rights.
“Meanwhile, the cost of living crisis confronting working class people across the city hits the LGBTQIA+ community particularly hard, with higher rates of unemployment and homelessness than the rest of the city.”
“The Mamdani administration will protect LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers by expanding and protecting gender-affirming care citywide, making NYC an LGBTQIA+ sanctuary city, and creating the Office of LGBTQIA+ Affairs.”
U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court upholds ACA rule that makes PrEP, other preventative care free
Liberal justices joined three conservatives in majority opinion
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday upheld a portion of the Affordable Care Act requiring private health insurers to cover the cost of preventative care including PrEP, which significantly reduces the risk of transmitting HIV.
Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh authored the majority opinion in the case, Kennedy v. Braidwood Management. He was joined by two conservatives, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, along with the three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown-Jackson.
The court’s decision rejected the plaintiffs’ challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s reliance on the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force to “unilaterally” determine which types of care and services must be covered by payors without cost-sharing.
An independent all-volunteer panel of nationally recognized experts in prevention and primary care, the 16 task force members are selected by the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to serve four-year terms.
They are responsible for evaluating the efficacy of counseling, screenings for diseases like cancer and diabetes, and preventative medicines — like Truvada for PrEP, drugs to reduce heart disease and strokes, and eye ointment for newborns to prevent infections.
Parties bringing the challenge objected especially to the mandatory coverage of PrEP, with some arguing the drugs would “encourage and facilitate homosexual behavior” against their religious beliefs.
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