Mississippi Told To Knock Off Their Lame Attempts To Circumvent Marriage Equality

A year ago this past Sunday, the Supreme Court ruled that The Gays were free to marry the person they loved and we rejoiced.

Well, most of us rejoiced; Mississippi did not. In fact, after that SCOTUS ruling Mississippi passed a law allowing county clerks to recuse themselves from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples because, well, God Hates Fags Who Get Married … or something.

Then, this week, a year and a day after Obergefell, Federal Judge Carlton Reeves told Mississippi to ‘knock it off,’ though in more legal terms than that; he said the state’s newly passed law allowing clerks to Just Say No Cuz The Baby Jeebus — i.e. their religious beliefs — was just a lame attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decision.

Reeves was particularly critical of the decision of state officials to respond to the Obergefell ruling by passing such a law and taking other related actions aimed at avoiding the existing injunction:

“The Fifth Circuit long ago chastised our State for such ‘a carefully calculated campaign of delay … and masterly inactivity’ … Mississippi’s elected officials may disagree with Obergefell, of course, and may express that disagreement as they see fit — by advocating for a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision, for example. But the marriage license issue will not be adjudicated anew after every legislative session.”

Sometimes you gotta drag these states kicking and screaming into the 21^st century and simple equality and Civil Rights.

Still, one would have thought Mississippi might have learned their Civil Rights lesson last century.

Buzzfeed