The Latest: GOP gov knocks Dem attorney on LGBT law appeal

JACKSON, Miss. – The Latest on an appeal of a judge’s ruling that blocked a religious-objections law in Mississippi (all times local):

5:05 p.m.

Mississippi’s Republican governor says the state’s Democratic attorney general has abandoned his duty to defend a law on religious objections to same-sex marriage.

A federal judge blocked the state law just before it was to take effect July 1, saying it unconstitutionally creates unequal treatment for gay people and establishes preferred religious beliefs.

Attorney General Jim Hood says Wednesday that he won’t join Gov. Phil Bryant in appealing that ruling because a continued legal fight would be “divisive and expensive.”

Bryant says Democrats have failed to win elections in Mississippi, “so they have joined secular progressives in their attempts to legislate through the courts.”

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3:40 p.m.

Mississippi’s Democratic attorney general says he won’t join the Republican governor in appealing a federal judge’s ruling that blocked a state law on religious objections to gay marriage.

Attorney General Jim Hood says Wednesday that a continued legal fight would be “divisive and expensive.”

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves blocked the bill just moments before it was to become law July 1. Gov. Phil Bryant last week asked Reeves to reconsider the ruling and to let the law take effect while Bryant appeals to a higher court.

The law sought to protect three beliefs: That marriage is only between a man and a woman; that sex should only take place in such a marriage; and that a person’s gender is determined at birth and cannot be altered.