Federal judge rules MS in violation of Voting Rights Act, must redraw districts
In a sweeping 105-page ruling, Aycock, a President George W. Bush appointee, found that the three Supreme Court districts were drawn in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. Aycock asked the Legislature to redraw those districts in the future to give Black voters a fair shot at electing candidates of their choice.
Out of the 100-plus justices who have served on the Mississippi Supreme Court, only four have been Black.
Mississippi law establishes three distinct Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each of these districts to make up the nine-member court. These districts have not been redrawn since 1987.
The main district at issue in the case is the Central District, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson Metro area. Currently, two white justices, Kenny Griffis and Jenifer Branning, and one Black justice, Leslie King, represent the district.
Last year, Branning, a white candidate who described herself as a 'constitutional conservative' and was backed by the Republican Party, defeated longtime Justice Jim Kitchens, a white man widely viewed as a candidate supported by Black voters.
No Black person has ever been elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court without first obtaining an interim appointment from the governor, and no Black person from either of the two other districts has ever served on the state's high court.
'In short, the evidence illustrates that Black candidates who desire to run for the Mississippi Supreme Court face a grim likelihood of success,' Aycock wrote in her ruling.
The lawsuit was filed in April 2022 by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center and private law firms on behalf of a group of Black Mississippians, including state Sen. Derrick Simmons of Greenville, and Ty Pinkins, a previous Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate.
Aycock wrote that the parties will convene a status conference soon to discuss an appropriate deadline for the Legislature to address the districts. The Legislature earlier this year adjourned its regular session, and Gov. Tate Reeves is the only person with the power to call lawmakers into a special session.
The state could appeal Aycock's ruling to the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
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