The so-called “religious liberty” bill, HB 1523, won’t be made law until July 1. However, the ACLU filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that the impending law is blatantly inconstitutional. It stigmatizes gay couples and allows clerks to treat them differently. Professor Matt Steffey of Mississippi College Law School said, “Why wait for this to cause injury?” “In this instance, the law in question is so blatantly inconsistent just by reading it that it causes injury to no imaginable circumstances,” Mississippi College Law School professor Matt Steffey said. Obergefell was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that held that states cannot prohibit homosexual couples from marrying heterosexual couples. In Mississippi, Nykolas and Stephen Thomas, both 26, brought suit against Judy Moulder, who was Mississippi’s state register of vital records. The “religious freedom” bill requires that the registrar compile a list listing all county clerks that decline to issue marriage licenses to the same-sex couple. According to the complaint, the constitution prohibits the creation of a list to limit the number of government employees who can issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Professor Emeritus George Cochran, University of Mississippi School of Law, stated that plaintiffs are standing for the suit. “Essentially what this act does is treat identical-sex couples like second-class citizens. It stigmatizes portions of the population. “Stigma” refers to a situation where a person is officially labeled by the state in a manner that causes harm. HB 1523 is said to stigmatize targeted people. This means that it treats them differently than the rest of society. Cochran stated that anyone authorized to issue marriage licenses may deny it based on a moral conviction or religious belief. It’s very vague. It’s impossible to know. This allows government employees to treat identical-sex couples differently. This degrades them.” Cochran expressed reservations that the complaint only addressed same-sex couples who were affected by the “religious liberty” bill. He is happy with the complaint as it stands: