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Local religious leaders in Mississippi have become the latest to file a lawsuit against the state’s recently enacted “religious freedom” law seen to enable sweeping anti-LGBT discrimination, alleging the statute violates separation of church and state.

The 14-page complaint, filed on Friday by Jackson-based civil rights attorney Rob McDuff and the Mississippi Center for Justice, alleges House Bill 1523 violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed the bill into law in April.

Beth Orlansky, advocacy director for the Mississippi Center for Justice, said in a statement HB 1523 amounts to affording special rights to religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage.

“Ensuring that government maintains neutrality on religious beliefs and respects religious diversity is part of our commitment to Mississippi as a social justice state,” Orlansky said. “Granting special protections to one set of religious views would allow legalized discrimination to put at risk decades of progress to secure full rights for all Mississippians.”

McDuff said in a statement the “religious freedom” law is unconstitutional because the religious leaders he represents don’t adhere to the religious views espoused under HB 1523.

“The people bringing this lawsuit, like thousands of people in Mississippi, do not subscribe to the religious views set forth in the bill, and do not believe the government should be interfering in religion by choosing some religious views over others,” McDuff said.

The law prohibits the state from taking action against religious organizations that decline employment, housing or services to same-sex couples; families who’ve adopted a foster child and wish to act in opposition to same-sex marriage; and individuals who offer wedding services and decline to facilitate a same-sex wedding. Additionally, the measure allows individuals working in medical services to decline to afford a transgender person gender reassignment surgery.

The law also allows state government employees who facilitate marriages the option to opt out of issuing licenses to same-sex couples, but the person must issue prior written notice to the state government and a clerk’s office must not delay in the issuing of licenses.

Alleging a law seen to enable anti-LGBT discrimination is unconstitutional on the basis it contravenes of freedom of religion is unusual because these lawsuits against anti-LGBT statutes typically argue violate the right to equal protection and due process. But the argument isn’t unprecedented; the United Church of Christ filed a lawsuit against North Carolina’s marriage ban in 2013 based on separation of church and state before courts struck down the prohibition on the basis of the 14th Amendment.

Plaintiffs in the case include civil rights advocates Rims Barber and Carol Burnett, who are ordained ministers; retired Millsaps chaplain Don Fortenberry, also an ordained minister; the Joshua Generation Metropolitan Community Church in Hattiesburg, its pastor Brandiilyne Magnum-Dear, its director of worship Susan Magnum; Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson; Founding Director Susan Glisson of the Winter Institute at the University of Mississippi; therapist and activist Joan Bailey, artist and activist Katherine Day as well as community activists Dorothy Triplett, Renick Taylor and Anthony Lane Boyette.

Taylor, a gay Harrison County, Miss, resident engaged to marry his partner this summer, said in a statement the law relegates him to second-class citizenship.

“As a lifelong Mississippian, a US Navy veteran, and a civil rights advocate, I must step up to challenge this law that would relegate me and others in the LGBT community to an inferior status,” Taylor said. “My faith and my commitment to my partner must not be devalued by this unjust law.”

The lawsuit comes on the heels of earlier litigation filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging HB 1523 on the basis that it violates the rights to equal protection and due process under the 14th Amendment. Roberta Kaplan, the New York-based attorney who successfully argued against the Defense of Marriage Act before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Campaign for Southern Equality are seeking to reopen litigation that sought to bring marriage equality in Mississippi to challenge the state’s “religious freedom” law.

Both the ACLU lawsuit and the lawsuit filed by religious leaders called on the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Mississippi, Northern Division, to issue an injunction against HB 1523 before it takes effect on July 1.

A spokesperson for Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, had no immediate comment in response to the lawsuit.

“We are reviewing the lawsuit, and we will file our response at the appropriate time,” said Aaron Sadler, a Hood spokesperson.

The Washington Blade has placed a call seeking comment on the lawsuit in with Bryant’s office. In April, the Blade reported Bryant has a gay son who was physically attacked in 2012 because of his sexual orientation.