One Judge To Hear Religious Objections Cases

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – One judge will hear all three challenges to a Mississippi law that will let clerks cite religious beliefs to recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples.

Each lawsuit originally had been assigned to a different federal judge. Two have been shifted to U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, who already had one.

In reassigning cases Friday, Chief District Judge Louis Guirola (guh-ROLL-ah) Jr. cited an overall equal distribution of the workload among judges.

Reeves overturned Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage in 2014 but put his ruling on hold while the state appealed. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling in an Ohio case last summer that effectively legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Mississippi’s House Bill 1523 , set to become law July 1, was a reaction to the Supreme Court decision.