Mississippi Supreme Court election map dilutes Black voters' power, judge rules

By Nate Raymond

Aug 20 (Reuters) - A federal judge has ordered Mississippi to redraw its election map used in voting for state supreme court justices after finding the current one dilutes the power of Black voters in violation of a landmark federal voting rights law.

U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock in Greenville sided with a group of Black citizens of the state in finding on Tuesday that the map in place since 1987 for Mississippi Supreme Court elections violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The court's nine justices are elected in nonpartisan races from three districts to serve eight-year, staggered terms. The map's lines are drawn by the state legislature and have changed little in over a century, according to the plaintiffs.

Black people make up about 40% of the state's population, but Aycock noted that the Mississippi Supreme Court has had only four Black justices, none of whom have served at the same time. Each held the same seat in District 1, which includes the city of Jackson and part of the Mississippi Delta, and all four were first appointed by a governor.

The only Black justice currently is Presiding Justice Leslie King.

"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.

The Republican-led state argued the current map was sufficient because District 1 already represented an election district in which Black people make up a majority of the voting age population, at 51.1%.

But Aycock, who presided over a non-jury trial in the case, said that data did not reflect voter eligibility or account for the state's lifetime ban on voting for people convicted of certain felonies, which disproportionately affects Black people.

Aycock pointed to a history of the southern state suppressing Black voters over nearly a century leading up to the Voting Rights Act's passage, after they gained the right to vote in the state in 1868 following the end of the Civil War.

"The evidence reveals a history of voting-related discrimination in Mississippi and the utilization of voting practices and procedures that continue to enhance the opportunity to discriminate against or suppress the votes of Black Mississippians," Aycock wrote.

The judge, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, blocked future use of the current map and directed the Mississippi legislature to draw up a new one. She said she would hold a hearing to address what deadline should be set.

“This win corrects a historic injustice,” Ari Savitzky, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union who represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, whose office defended the current map, said her office is reviewing the ruling.

The case is White v. State Board of Election Commissioners, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, No. 22-cv-00062.

For the plaintiffs: Joshua Tom of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi Foundation, Ari Savitzky of the ACLU Foundation, Bradley Heard of the Southern Poverty Law Center and Jonathan Youngwood of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

For Mississippi: Rex Shannon of the Mississippi Office of the Attorney General and Michael Wallace of Wise Carter Child & Caraway