In its more than 200 year history, only four Justices on the state’s highest court have been Black, three of whom were appointed by Governors and later re-elected. No more than one Black justice has served on the court at one time.
With Black residents making up nearly 40% of the state's total population, some believe the lack of representation on the state's highest court isn't happenstance -- but rather, by design.
“We are not trying to change the way the Mississippi Supreme Court is elected – we just want the maps to be fair,” said Derrick Simmons, one of several plaintiffs who filed the lawsuit, and a Democrat representing Greenville and surrounding Delta communities in the Mississippi Senate.
“If you draw the lines in a fair way, Black Mississippians could elect candidates of their choice. Of course I am concerned about the fact that 40% of Mississippians are Black, and yet we are woefully underrepresented.”
At issue in the non-jury trial, which began with a 2022 lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Mississippi, Southern Poverty Law Center, and private law firm Simpson, Thacher and Bartlett, is whether the configuration of the districts dilutes Black voting power and the ability of Black voters to elect candidates of their choice.
Mississippians elect justices across three distinct districts representing the northern, central and southern regions of the state. In the Central district, also known as district one, the Black voting age population is 49% – the highest of the three districts by a wide margin.
But four Black plaintiffs who reside in the district, which comprises much of the Delta and the state’s capital city of Jackson, say the outdated district lines don’t reflect that population, and in fact make it difficult to elect justices of their choosing.
They’re suing under section two of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting practices and procedures, and want the state to draw a new district that’s majority-Black.
Ari Savitzky, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union and co-counsel on the case, says a new central district could easily be drawn to be in compliance with the federal law.
“Those district lines are out of compliance with the one person, one vote principle because it's been so long since they've been updated. Racially polarized voting is a fact of political life in Mississippi, and the result is that these districts don't provide an equal opportunity for black voters,” Savitzky told MPB News.
“The population in Mississippi has changed significantly since 1987 and the Black population has grown significantly. Right now you can just rearrange the counties -- you don't have to split any counties, you don't have to do anything odd. You just put some different counties into different lines and, and you can have a black majority district that'll give real fair opportunity.”
To make that point, Savitzky and his co-counsel Jonathan Youngwood of Simpson, Thatcher and Bartlett scheduled a number of experts to testify during the first week of the trial: one in voter participation, one in racial polarization, and another expert in the mapping of districts themselves.
In addition to questioning an expert in Mississippi history, especially along racial lines, Youngwood says the testimony will provide better context for judge Sharion Aycock to rule in the case.
“They’ve walked through Mississippi's history in terms of racial issues looking far back in time to the post-Civil War period, but also bringing that history forward and showing how it affects Mississippians today -- black Mississippians and white Mississippians.”
