Rachel Maddow: Mississippi Could Lose Billions Over Anti-LGBT Law

Mississippi's sweeping anti-LGBT "religious liberty" law could cost the state billions in federal aid, out MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow reported Friday.

The law, known as House Bill 1523 or the "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act," will allow businesses, individuals, and religiously affiliated organizations to deny service to LGBT people, single mothers, and others who somehow offend an individual's "sincerely held religious belief or moral conviction." It also directly targets transgender residents, effectively claiming that one's sex assigned at birth is immutable, and will be the only gender recognized by the state. The law takes effect July 1.

On Friday's eponymous show, Maddow broke the news that the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of transportation are both "evaluating" Mississippi's new law to see whether its enforcement runs contrary to existing federal protections.

"If these agencies find that Mississippi is in violation of federal nondiscrimination policies, then Mississippi, too, like North Carolina, they could use billions of federal dollars, which North Carolina cannot afford, but which Mississippi desperately cannot afford."

Let Maddow break it down for you below.