Name: Khramagin Denis
Instructor: Professor Kelman
Course: GB110 – 013
Date: 15.04.2016
Topic: A – Statutory Law
“Mississippi governor signs law allowing businesses to refuse service to gay people” – the Washington Post
Nowadays, the corporate world greatly depends on the constitution and the law of the country it functions in. At the end of the day, it is the law that controls the economy of the world, preventing it from frauds and chaos. The USA is no exception. In fact, the US Judicial system could be well named one of the most advanced on the globe. One of the reasons for that is the ability of this system to adapt.
From the simplest start- up to a huge corporation, there is always an involvement of the law seen. At every single step of its development, business expects the law to help and protect its activities. In its turn, the law expects businesses to obey as well. However, the world doesn’t stand still. Patterns in resource consumption, needs of population, business activities and even the ways to avoid law regulations keep changing on daily basis. In order for the Judicial system to maintain control over such a pace, the law gets moderated, revised and adapted to the world around even quicker… This paper will discuss one of such adaptations, that happened just recently.
Here, a controversial bill that was signed into a law in the state of Mississippi will be analyzed from the legal perspective. According to the Washington Post Article dated April the 5th 2016 “Mississippi governor signs law allowing businesses to refuse service to gay people”, on Tuesday the 5th of April 2016 the Mississippi state Governor Phil Bryant has signed into law a bill that allows businesses to refuse services to gay couples based on religious objections.
The new law has rather controversial purpose and aim. According to the article, the law is said to protect the belief that marriage is only allowed between a man and a woman and that sexual relations should only occur in such circumstances only. It also says that a person’s gender is “determined by anatomy and genetics at time of birth”. But the main part follows, where the law says that business have a right to determine, who exactly is allowed to access its service.
Clearly, such a “brave” act has caused a severe conflict of interests. Many groups were and are influenced. Some of those people agree with the law, some are completely against it. However, that will be discussed later in this work.
The new Mississippi law falls under the Statutory Law category. Why is it so? And what is a statutory law? These questions should be answered first in order to proceed with the analysis. According to the GB110 Course Notes, the law becomes a statutory, when it has been established by legislature in a formally written way and is enacted on legal basis. There are two main types of a statutory law. For each type of the statutory law there are special steps needed in order for the proposal to become an actual law…
The first type is a statutory law on a federal level of the country – the federal statutory law. This type could only be enacted by the US Congress. The federal statutory law is usually introduced by the members of The House of Representatives Chamber of the Congress in the form of a public law bill at first. As soon as the bill introduced, it becomes a subject to review in special committee, debating and hearing about its advantages, disadvantages and those, who will be effected. If the bill is approved by the committee, the House of Representatives gets to vote on the bill. If the bill is voted by the majority of the members (218 out of 435), the bill is moved to the Senate Chamber. In the Senate the bill gets reviewed again by the special committee of the Senate Chamber. Similarly, it is voted then and only if it is passed by the majority members (51 out of 100), the next step follows. The House of Representatives and the Senate looks at any differences between the House and the Senate versions of the reviewed bill. If both of the chambers’ members approve the bill, it goes to a final stage – the President. The President has then up to 10 days to either approve the new law or veto it, meaning disapprove. Only if the law was able to pass all the stages of such a detailed and demanding process, it is usually given a number, a title and is posted into the US Code legal books!
Clearly, in the case of Mississippi’s new law, we are dealing with another type of the statutory law – state statutory law. Obviously enough, in order for the law to be published on the state level, the newly introduced bill has to complete exactly the same process of approval that was described in details above. The only difference is that it is the state government, who will be completing the reviewing process, debating and hearing about the law, as well as enacting it on the final stage. The state’s governor then gets an opportunity of the final approval or veto, just as the President does on the federal level.
The newly adopted law in the state of Mississippi has a following structure. The official bill No. is 1523. According to the attached copy of the bill, the act’s main purpose is: “To create the "protecting freedom of conscience from government discrimination act"; To provide certain protections regarding a sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction for persons, religious organizations and private associations; To define a discriminatory action for purposes of this act; To provide that a person may assert a violation of this act as a claim against the government; To provide certain remedies; To require a person bringing a claim under this act to do so not later than two years after the discriminatory action was taken; To provide certain definitions; And for related purposes.” The bill has 11 Sections that are primarily used to make necessary corrections and amendments to the main purpose of the law stated above. The bill consists of 301 lines printed on 13 pages. The law is said to be in effect beginning July 1, 2016.
The third part of the analysis will focus on the groups of people that are affected by the new proposal. As it has been already said above, the new law in Mississippi caused severe controversy. The Washington Post article provides several examples of for and against opinions that all have their valid points. However, at first it is always better to determine groups of people involved and influenced.
As such, sexual minorities of the state are definitely involved here. The law grants a right for sexual minorities to be refused in receiving a proper business service. This could be a valid reason for a strong opposition. On the other hand, it is businesses that quite possibly are losing their selling and production opportunities and capacity. However, still gaining the ability to protect their religious beliefs and show that through its activities and operations. Clearly enough, state government will be involved in the debates, taking the side of the supporters. There is also a great involvement of the third parties seen. Such organizations as various unions that protect liberal rights, minority societies that protect their members and other interested entities will be definitely a part of either the opposition or the supporters of the new proposal.
Generally, opinions are divided into two groups: for and against the bill. According to the article, those who are against ask Governor Bryant (Mississippi state) to veto the bill. Their main argument being the fact that the proposal encourages discrimination in the state. Others support the legislators and the governor, saying that the bill protects the religious beliefs of the people who provide service and not in any way discriminates sexual minority groups of the state.
As an example of the “against” opinion Washington post quotes Jennifer Riley-Collins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi state. She says: “This is a sad day for the state of Mississippi and for the thousands of Mississippians who can now be turned away from businesses, refused marriage licenses, or denied housing, essential services and needed care based on who they are. This bill flies in the face of the basic American principles of fairness, justice and equality and will not protect anyone’s religious liberty.” It could be seen that the opposition perceives the law as the obstacle for the US’s liberal and progressive society and its further development. As such, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi says: “Mississippi’s abhorrent new law is going against the tide of progress in our country.”
On the other hand, there is a bunch of different opinions that are also justifiable. For example, those, who support the bill justify their reasoning by saying that such a change is almost necessary after last year’s Supreme Court decision allowing gay marriages. The state’s lieutenant governor Tate Reeves says: “This bill simply protects those individuals from government interference when practicing their religious beliefs.”
Moreover, some of the large businesses operating in the state of Mississippi have also expressed their opinion on the new law. For example, The Mississippi Manufacturers Association said: “fears that future economic development opportunities will be jeopardized”. Such members of the Association as Toyota and Nissan do also vote against the newly signed law, bringing the significant power to the opposition. Another giant – the IBM expressed its opinion as being “disappointed” by the legislators’ view of the situation and the signed act.