JACKSON, MS — U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves for the Southern District of Mississippi will hear arguments today against the same-sex marriage ban in that state. The lawsuit was filed by the Campaign for Southern Equality on behalf of Rebecca “Becky” Bickett and her longtime partner Andrea Sanders as well as Jocelyn “Joce” Pritchett and her spouse Carla Webb. Pritchett and Webb were married in Maine in 2013.

The lawsuit claims that Mississippi violates the constitution rights of the LGBT community by denying the same-sex couples with the “rights, benefits and duties that automatically come with marriage.”

Reeves was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate by voice vote on December 19, 2010. A federal judge will hear arguments next week in a lawsuit that challenges Mississippi’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Mississippi voted to change its state constitution to ban same-sex marriage ten years ago in November 2004.

Photo of Judge Carlton Reeves courtesy of Jackson State University.

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