State Religious Exemption Laws

NOTE: These laws have recently been used as a defense when businesses discriminate against or refuse service to LGBT customers and same-sex couples.

Mississippi's targeted religious exemption law (2016) permits faith-based organizations to deny marriage-related services and to discriminate in housing, employment, adoption and foster care, and the provision of mental and physical health care; permits businesses to deny marriage related goods and services; permits employers and schools to discriminate in dress codes and in the accessibility of facilities; and permits state employees to deny marriage licenses, all if the previously mentioned employers, businesses, state employees, and faith-based organizations have the belief or moral conviction that 1) marriage should be between one man and one woman, 2) sexual relations should be reserved to marriage, or 3) male and female identities are determined by anatomy and genetics at birth. The law is not in effect, pending the appeal of a federal court decision that the law violates the Constitution.

In 2016, Tennessee enacted a law permitting mental health professionals to refuse service to clients on the basis of the mental health professional's religious belief.