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Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
MS Senate redistricting plan prompts NAACP request for court intervention, redrawn maps
A federal three-judge panel should reject proposals submitted by the State Board of Election Commissioners to redraw several Senate districts in the Desoto County area, Lawyers representing the NAACP and several Mississippians argued on April 29. In the filing, attorneys said the state's latest proposal to remedy Black voter dilution in the Northwest corner of the state falls short of the goal, which was mandated by a 2024 federal court order to redraw legislative districts and create several Black majority districts. Among other arguments, plaintiffs' attorneys wrote the panel should reject the election commissioners' proposal on the grounds that it is the Legislature tasked with redrawing its lines, and the court already rejected the Legislature's proposal. "Any suggestion that the SBEC's own assertions of 'the State's interests' should receive deference or 'flexibility' as the court considers which plan to approve…is simply wrong," plaintiffs' attorneys argued. In December 2022, the NAACP and several state voters filed a lawsuit claiming the Legislature's 2022 redistricting diluted Black voting power, violating federal law. In 2024, the panel agreed and ordered the Legislature to propose a new map creating new Black majority districts. The panel is comprised of U.S. District Court judges Daniel Jordan III and Sul Ozerden and U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick. Other elections related lawsuit: Why MS is appealing mail-in absentee ballot case to US Supreme Court. What to know In the 2025 Legislative Session, lawmakers passed district changes for the House and Senate, resulting in several amended districts and the creation of two Black-majority districts with no incumbent. Once the Legislature sent its new plan to the court, the NAACP challenged the redraw in the Northeast Mississippi and Desoto County areas but not the Hattiesburg-area district changes. Attorneys representing both parties gave arguments for and against the Legislature's plan in mid-April at the Thad Cochran United States Courthouse. Those arguments were based on whether the new districts in Northeast Mississippi and the Desoto County area realistically created an opportunity for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice. The defendants last week submitted their new plan, which would, if approved by the panel, create a Black majority district in Senate District 2 and maintain a slight Black majority district in Senate District 11. The new plan does not create any Senate districts without an incumbent or place any existing lawmakers into the same district. Plaintiffs said in their filing the state's new proposal for Senate District 11 does provide an opportunity to remedy Black voter dilution but not in Senate District 2. They also argued their plan for SD 11, the North Delta district, would be better. "The evidence on balance shows the State Senate candidates preferred by Black voters are likely to be defeated in that district," the plaintiffs' attorneys wrote. Also, by keeping a white incumbent in Senate District 2, David Parker, R-Olive Branch, the state's new plan further reduces the chance of Black voters electing a candidate of their choice, they said. The plaintiffs also argued the state's new plan does not conform to key elements of the Legislature's proposal such as including an open Black majority district in Desoto County. ACLU, state arguments on redistricting: New Mississippi House, Senate districts not yet approved by federal court panel In their filing, the plaintiffs agreed to a secondary proposal set forth by the election commissioners to push back the special election schedule but not change the date for voters to cast ballots. This would give the panel a little more than two weeks from now to consider both the state's and the NAACP's proposals. If either party objects to the panel's ruling, they could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. If approved by the panel, the new schedule would be: May 12 – Deadline to share detailed maps and address libraries with local electionofficials. June 2-9– Qualifying period. June 13 – Deadline for State Executive Committee to submit names of qualifiedcandidates. June 21 – Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) absentee voting begins for primary election. August 5 – Special Primary Election Day. September 2 – Special Primary Runoff Election Day. September 20 – UOCAVA absentee voting begins for general election. November 4 – Special General Election Day. Grant McLaughlin covers the Legislature and state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@ or 972-571-2335. This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: New Mississippi Senate redistricting proposal prompts NAACP objections
Associated Press
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Federal judges hear arguments from NAACP, state officials over new legislative districts
A federal three-judge panel on Tuesday did not indicate whether it would accept the Mississippi Legislature's plan to redraw 15 legislative districts or demand that candidates run under a different map in a November special election. Attorneys for the NAACP and state officials appeared in federal court in Jackson to argue whether the Legislature's proposed maps satisfy a previous court order that determined state officials diluted Black voting strength when they redrew the state's 174 legislative districts in 2022. Two U.S. district judges, Daniel Jordan III and Sul Ozerden, and one U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge, Leslie Southwick, ordered the state to create new legislative maps that redraw a House district around the Chickasaw County area, a Senate district in DeSoto County and a Senate district in the Hattiesburg area. The Legislature proposed a new Senate map that creates one new majority-Black district each in DeSoto County and the Hattiesburg area, with no incumbent senator in either district. To account for the new districts, two pairs of incumbents were placed in other districts. The Legislature also proposed a new House map that tweaked five districts in north Mississippi and made the House district in Chickasaw County a majority-Black district. 'The Legislature chose to draw plans in an effort to satisfy the court's order,' said Tommie Cardin, an attorney representing the state. The NAACP and Black voters from around the state are the plaintiffs in the case. They did not object to the Hattiesburg-area Senate districts, but they do object to the proposal in the DeSoto County Senate district and the Chickasaw County House district. Ari Savitzky, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told the judges that the DeSoto and Chickasaw districts, on paper, may contain a majority of Black citizens eligible to vote. However, he said they still do not allow Black voters a realistic shot at electing candidates of their choice. 'The legislative plans add numerically Black-majority districts, but the opportunities they create are illusory,' Savitzky said. State officials are the defendants in the suit, and contend that federal law does not require them to create a district that gives Black voters a realistic chance of success. It simply requires them to make one that is competitive. 'This is not a beauty contest among plans where the court determines which plan is more superior to the other,' Cardin said. Rep. Jon Lancaster, a Republican from Houston, currently represents the central House district in question. Savitzsky said that because an incumbent represents that district, it would be difficult for a Black-preferred candidate to win against him in a special election. Judge Southwick pushed back on that argument, saying that incumbency seems more specific to the 'politics of the moment,' instead of a broader legal argument. 'I'm not sure there's precedential authority to show it isn't a good district,' Southwick said. The panel, however, asked the attorneys of both parties about the DeSoto County Senate district. This part of the proposal has met objections from both the plaintiffs and local officials in DeSoto County, though for different reasons. Judge Jordan and Judge Southwick pressed attorneys on whether it was enough for the new majority-Black districts to have a simple majority of eligible Black voters, or if the districts should contain an 'effective majority' to satisfy federal law. Savitzky argued that in the DeSoto-area districts where a white candidate is running in a white-majority district, the white candidate is predicted to win almost every time. But when a Black candidate runs in the majority-Black district proposed by the Legislature, it's simply a 'coin flip' whether the Black candidate will win. Cardin, however, argued federal law only requires the state's remedial maps to create a 'real opportunity' for Black voters to elect their preferred candidate, not a 'guarantee of success.' The panel did not issue a ruling from the bench, nor did it give a specific timeframe for when it would issue a ruling. However, Judge Southwick said the panel would hand down a ruling as 'quickly as we can.' An attorney for the state stressed that state and local elections officials must have a resolution by the end of the month to process absentee ballot applications from military members serving overseas. If the federal judges accept the Legislature's maps, the qualifying period for new elections would run from May 19 to May 30. The primary election would be held on August 5, with a potential primary runoff on September 2 and the general election on November 4.
