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This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025.
Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.

Anti-42ers keep talking about “that one judge in Hinds County” who could have the last word in spending billions of tax dollars should Initiative 42 pass on Nov. 3. So what else is that one judge going to do to all of us if we don’t tell the Legislature it’s OK to keep violating state law?

Show up at Rep. Bubba Carpenter’s house in the middle of the night and steal his chickens.

Let out everyone on bond.

Order lunch for the Legislature.

Only streets with black pavement are repaved.

Be really annoying.

Declare aliens from outer space legal and turn Burnsville into a sanctuary city.

New race-based quotas for hunting and fishing licenses.

Officiate your child’s marriage to a “Democrat.” Two words: Disco Night.

Reset all of Phil Bryant’s alarm clocks and watches so he’s late to all his meetings.

Clone himself so he can fill every major state government role.

Consolidate all state universities into Jackson State University. The University of Mississippi will thereafter be known as JSU-Oxford.

Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.