MISSISSIPPI: State Files Opposition To Immediate Gay Marriage Request

At a hearing to be held tomorrow, DOMA attorney Roberta Kaplan will lead the legal team seeking to overturn Mississippi's ban on same-sex marriage. Last night Gov. Phil Bryant filed a motion in opposition to Kaplan's request that marriages commence immediately while the lawsuit proceeds. Via the Associated Press:

Bryant and Attorney General Jim Hood responded that the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Mississippi and two other states, has not recognized gays and lesbians as a group with specific civil-rights protections. Because of that, there is no reason for a federal district judge to give “heightened scrutiny” to claims of bias. “Mississippi’s traditional marriage laws do not discriminate,” Bryant and Hood said in court papers Monday. In November 2004, Mississippi voters approved a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being only between one man and one woman. A federal judge will hear arguments Wednesday as plaintiffs seek to block the state from enforcing its same-sex marriage ban while the lawsuit is pending.

From Bryant's filing:

On October 20, 2014, Plaintiffs, the Campaign for Southern Equality,Rebecca Bickett, Andrea Sanders, Jocelyn Pritchett, and Carla Webb (collectively“the Campaign”) filed this lawsuit seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the Governor, Attorney General (collectively “the State Defendants”), and the Hinds County Circuit Clerk and claiming Mississippi Code Section 93-1-1(2) and Article14, Section 263A of the Mississippi Constitution violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. Complaint, Docket No. 1. Simultaneously, the Campaign filed its instant motion for a preliminary and immediate injunction constituting full and final relief on the merits of its claims. The Campaign’s motion should be denied for failure to satisfy the four necessary elements for preliminary injunctive relief. No substantial likelihood of success on the merits has been shown, no threat of immediate and irreparable injury has been proven, the balance of potential harms favors the defendants, and the requested preliminary injunctive relief would disserve the public’s interest.

RELATED: In a separate case, back in September the Alliance Defending Freedom filed a brief on Bryant's behalf in a same-sex divorce case before the Mississippi Supreme Court.