(AP) — A federal judge has blocked a Mississippi law that would let merchants and government employees cite religious beliefs in denying or delaying services to same-sex couples. The Family Research Council gave him a religious freedom award for signing the bill, and Bryant said the "secular, progressive world had decided they were going to pour their anger and their frustration" on him because of the bill. More than 100 bills were filed in more than 20 state legislatures across the nation in response to the U.S.