In Challenge to HB 1523, Plaintiffs File New Brief Challenging State’s Arguments
Today, a legal team led by Roberta Kaplan filed a reply brief as part of an effort to reopen Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant in order to address the harms caused by HB 1523, a sweeping anti-LGBT law that recently passed. The brief was filed in the court of Judge Carlton Reeves, who in November 2014 issued a ruling in CSE v. Bryant that struck down Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage.
The reply brief filed today responds directly to arguments made by the state. Key sections of the plaintiffs reply brief include:
“Defendants contend that gay couples seeking to marry in Mississippi should … quietly abide the stigmatic injury of once again being relegated to second-class citizenship and live with the uncertainty of not knowing whether the Circuit Clerk in the county where they live and whose salary their tax dollars help to pay will stand in the way of their constitutional right to marry.”
“The State of Mississippi cannot be permitted to constantly erect new legal barriers—such as HB 1523—to chip away at the constitutional rights of gay and lesbian Mississippians that have already been recognized by the federal courts.”
Early reporting from Slate Magazine about the reply brief is available at: http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/06/01/mississippi_anti_gay_marriage_law_challenged_by_roberta_kaplan.html
Campaign for Southern Equality
6/1/16
Magnolia Tribune
