The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower federal court’s decision to strike down House Bill 1523, allowing the law to take effect.

Writing on behalf of himself and Judges Catharina Haynes and Jennifer Elrod, Judge Jerry E. Smith dismissed last summer’s U.S. District Court verdict, ruling that the original plaintiffs challenging House Bill 1523 lacked standing.

“Under this current record, the plaintiffs have not shown an injury-in-fact caused by HB 1523 that would empower the district court or this court to rule on its constitutionality. We do not foreclose the possibility that a future plaintiff may be able to show clear injury-in-fact … but the federal courts must withhold judgment unless and until that plaintiff comes forward,” Smith wrote in his opinion for the Fifth Circuit.

Although the Fifth Circuit’s decision clears the way for the legislation to finally become state law, after nearly a year of delays and legal action, it will not automatically take effect.

House Bill 1523 singles out three “sincerely held” religious beliefs as worthy of protection: that marriage is between one man and one woman; that people should not have sex outside such marriages; and that a person’s gender is set at birth.

The legislation legally protects anyone who refuses marriage-related services because of these beliefs.

On June 30, minutes before the law would have taken effect at midnight, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves struck down House Bill 1523 in a blistering opinion that declared the law “does not honor (this country’s) tradition of religion freedom, nor does it respect the equal dignity of all of Mississippi’s citizens.”

Unlike Reeves’s ruling, Thursday’s decision did not take the merits of the legislation into account. The Fifth Circuit’s decision was based solely on the idea that the original plaintiffs could not argue they had been injured by a law that had not taken effect.

“Plaintiff Rennick Taylor comes the closest by stating his intention to marry, but that alone is insufficient. He does not allege that he was seeking wedding-related services from a business that would deny him or that he was seeking a marriage license or solemnization from a clerk or judge who would refuse to be involved in such a ceremony, or even that he intended to get married in Mississippi,” Smith wrote in the Fifth Circuit’s decision.

“Without more, we are left to speculate as to the injuries he and the other plaintiffs might suffer. That we cannot do.”

Despite the Fifth Circuit’s unwillingness to rule on the religious freedom angle of House Bill 1523, supporters of the legislation claimed victory for Christians in the state.

Ron Matis, political director for United Pentecostal Church of Mississippi:

“This is a great day for people of faith in Mississippi. I am grateful that the Fifth Circuit made the right decision to allow the sincerely held religious beliefs of Mississippians to be protected from government discrimination,” said Ron Matis, political director for United Pentecostal Church of Mississippi.