ACLU argues MS Supreme Court districts violate Federal law

A federal case similar to the one where three judges ruled the states’ legislative boundaries in three districts dilute Black voting power is heading to court to argue whether the state’s judicial districts have run afoul of the same.

On Aug. 5, the American Civil Liberties Union, its state affiliate and the Southern Poverty Law Center will argue with those representing the State Board of Election Commissioners before Judge Sharion Aycock, representing the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. The State Board of Election Commissioners consists only of white Republicans in statewide offices.

Is Mississippi violating the Voting Rights Act?

In a July 8 filing, the plaintiffs argued that like the case currently underway in the state’s U.S. Court for the Southern District, the state has violated the U.S. Voting Rights Act and asks the court to have the lines redrawn.

“Voting patterns in Mississippi are starkly polarized along racial lines, such that White voters vote in massive numbers against Black voters’ preferred candidates,” the plaintiffs wrote. “… The electoral maps used to elect Supreme Court justices (“Enacted Plan”), which have not been changed since 1987, cut the Mississippi Delta in half and do not contain any majority-Black voting age districts where Black voters can elect preferred candidates despite the stark racial polarization of the electorate. That is vote dilution in a nutshell.”

Districts have not been redrawn since 1987

Before July 8, the election commissioners, Republicans Gov. Tate Reeves, Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Secretary of State Michael Watson, have argued that the districts are not discriminatory toward Black voters. However, they did agree that that those districts have not been redrawn by state lawmakers since 1987.

According to the Mississippi Supreme Court records, there have only been four Black justices, and those lines have in fact not been redrawn since 1987. The case was filed in 2022.

The case is unlikely to reach a definitive conclusion by Nov. 5, when voters will decide which candidates currently running for judicial seats in the Mississippi Supreme Court Central and Southern districts. Incumbents in those races are Jim Kitchens (Central District) and Dawn Beam (Southern District).

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The Mississippi Supreme Court is divided into three districts, effectively cutting the state into Nothern, Central and Southern sections.

As it relates to the legislative redistricting case, if the court found evidence that Black populations are being corralled into the three districts with white voters to the point that dilutes their group voting power, it could rule in the ACLU and others’ favor.

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That was one of the key the arguments made by the Mississippi NAACP and the ACLU in the Southern District case.

As of Thursday, the legislative redistricting case had been ruled on for the second time. The court will allow the state to redistrict its legislative boundaries in 2025.

Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.