State-Run Court Blocked in Jackson As NAACP Appeals H.B. 1020 Case
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the creation of a state-run municipal court system in Jackson under H.B. 1020.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the creation of a state-run municipal court system in Jackson under H.B. 1020.
Mississippi House Bill 1020 is “racially discriminatory” because it shifts “authority over the county’s criminal justice system away from democratically-elected judges and prosecutors elected by Black voters,” the U.S. Department of Justice said Wednesday as it filed a complaint in federal court.
Allowing House Bill 1020 to stand “would constitute a tremendous transfer of power from the voters of Mississippi, who have for over 100 years elected our circuit judges, to the Legislature,” attorney Cliff Johnson told eight members of the Mississippi Supreme Court during hearings Thursday.
Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael K. Randolph recused himself as his colleagues were set to consider House Bill 1020, the recent Mississippi law that gives him the power to appoint unelected judges to serve in Hinds County—the majority-Black home of the City of Jackson.
Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice will no longer be a defendant in a federal lawsuit challenging House Bill 1020’s requirement for him to appoint four judges to serve Hinds County, the majority-Black home of the capital City of Jackson.
The white chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court will remain blocked from appointing four unelected circuit court judges to serve Hinds County, the majority-Black home of the capital City of Jackson, after a federal judge extended a temporary restraining order against House Bill 1020 on Monday.
Three Jackson residents will appeal a judge’s ruling that upheld House Bill 1020’s mandate for Mississippi’s white Supreme Court chief justice to appoint unelected judges to serve in majority-Black Hinds County, a coalition of organizations supporting their efforts said in a statement on Monday afternoon.
The Mississippi Supreme Court’s chief justice will not be able to appoint four unelected state court judges to preside over Hinds County, the home of the majority-Black capital City of Jackson, after a federal judge temporarily blocked him from doing so on Tuesday.
Three Jackson residents are suing to stop House Bill 1020, saying the new law violates the Mississippi Constitution and dilutes local voting power with unelected, state-appointed judges.
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