The fight between the City of Jackson and the State of Mississippi for control of the capital city’s international airport continues, Jackson City Attorney Drew Martin confirmed during Tuesday’s Jackson City Council meeting.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi Judge Carlton Reeves decided on May 23 that the capital City’s lawsuit against the State would proceed in federal court, rejecting a motion from the State to dismiss the case.
“We will continue to fight,” Martin told members of the council.
Jackson Currently Maintains Control of the Airport
The Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport is in Rankin County but sits on City of Jackson property.
A 2016 law, authored by Rankin County Republican Mississippi Sen. Josh Harkins, would transfer control of the airport from the majority-Black City of Jackson’s Jackson Municipal Airport Authority to a larger nine-member board.
Its membership would be made up of appointed officials from the mayors of Jackson, Rankin and Madison counties, as well as members appointed by the governor and lieutenant governor.
The City of Jackson has maintained control of the airport’s affairs throughout the lawsuit, which could continue “for years to come,” Reeves wrote in his ruling on May 23.
“That is because after the case wraps up here, there will likely be another appeal to the Fifth Circuit and perhaps a petition for U.S. Supreme Court review,” he explained. “And if all that litigation ends with a victory for the defendants, there will be an administrative process in Washington, D.C., in which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) decides whether to approve a transfer from JMAA to the new, state-controlled authority.”
He rejected the State’s argument to dismiss the lawsuit in federal court. The State had claimed that federal courts do not have proper jurisdiction to preside over the case.
‘State Defendants Now Tire of Being Here’
Then-Gov. Phil Bryant signed House Bill 2162 into law on May 5, 2016. Republican lawmakers who pushed for the nine-member board argued that it is necessary since the airport serves a regional customer base. But Jackson residents and activists protested the law, filing a lawsuit, arguing that it is racially discriminatory legislation that violates the Mississippi Constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
Sen. Josh Harkins denied that lawmakers had any ill intent when drafting the bill.
“This is about making the airport the best it can be to serve the citizens of this state. Jackson, financially, will not suffer one bit under this plan. If the airport improves, the City of Jackson will improve. They’ll get more revenue from it,” the Flowood lawmaker said in 2016.
Members of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority later joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. The case has gone through a series of appeals, including a 2019 order and a November 2024 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision that found Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba and the Jackson City Council lacked standing to sue in their capacity as public officials. In his ruling, though, Reeves wrote that they had standing to sue as taxpayers in Jackson, not just as public officials.
“In strictly economic terms, the Jackson airport is a tangible asset owned by the taxpayers of the City,” he wrote in his May 23 ruling. “… The airport’s seizure by the State of Mississippi represents, in this light, a government taking of property—one that so far has lacked the remedy of ‘just compensation’ that the Fifth Amendment provides individuals.”
Reeves also added that “if the plaintiffs ultimately prove that the State of Mississippi considered race when it passed a law that targeted the City of Jackson and only the City of Jackson, then yes, that would violate the guarantee of Equal Protection” under the U.S. Constitution.
“We are still in the fight, and I am not going to believe that we are not going to change any type of strategy, because this is our land, and you just don’t come and take someone’s land,” Ward 5 Jackson City Councilman Vernon Hartley said following the appeals court decision.
On May 23, the State argued that the case should continue in state court, not federal court.
“The State Defendants’ argument today is procedural. They say these claims should be litigated in state court rather than federal court,” Reeves wrote. “The State Defendants now tire of being here. They complain that this “dispute has consumed the Court’s, the Fifth Circuit’s, and the parties’ resources for over eight years (so far).”
Reeves rejected the motion to dismiss, in part, because of the State’s insistence on pursuing the case.
“The State Defendants made their choice eight years ago. If they had proposed a different path then, the parties would have commenced the parallel litigation in state court, presumably in Hinds County, which might well be over by now—although there is no guarantee,” Reeves wrote. “Regardless, the State Defendants didn’t do that. They weighed their options. They got what they asked for: a federal forum. They cannot now complain about the consequence of their representation—their strategic choice.”
‘It Is Paternalistic and It Is Racist’
Outgoing Jackson Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba has compared the move to seize control of the city’s airport to other state-sponsored plans to go after assets like the Smith Wills Stadium and to give state-run Capitol Police and state-appointed courts jurisdiction in the city. State lawmakers also proposed legislation in 2024 to move oversight of Jackson’s water system from under the City of Jackson to a regional water utility board. That plan, authored by Sen. David Parker, R-Olive Branch, died in the Mississippi House of Representatives without a vote before the deadline to move it out of committee.
“There is a barrage of attacks on the City of Jackson. … We have to call that what it is. It is paternalistic, and it is racist,” the mayor said during a May 20, 2024, press conference at City Hall.
The litigation over the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport is just one example of a national trend of state lawmakers attempting to use their power to gain control of municipal airports.
Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly tried to take control of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in 2013. Tennessee Republican lawmakers tried the same with the Nashville International Airport in 2023.
The City of Atlanta fought off an attempted takeover of the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in 2019. Those efforts coincided with a federal bribery investigation into Atlanta City Hall and contractors with the city. The Georgia Senate approved a measure to give the state control of Hartsfield-Jackson, saying it was needed to protect the state’s economic engine from corruption and mismanagement. That bill died in the Georgia House.
‘Help Block A State Takeover’
Last year, federal lawmakers passed the 2024 Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill. Part of that bill included a stipulation that will keep Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport under local control. Following the bill’s passage, U.S. Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Georgia, touted his role in protecting the airport.
“I was proud to champion the recent FAA reauthorization bill that was signed into law that includes my provision to help block a state takeover of the Atlanta airport. We were able to increase protections for millions of revenue dollars flowing from the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and help ensure minority-owned small businesses get their fair share. Not asking for anything extra; just their fair share,” the senator said.
“You have a model in Atlanta that the rest of the country really should be trying to imitate, of Black businesses, businesses owned by other people of color, women-owned businesses. It looks like America,” he continued.
As the fight over the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport continues, the case will continue moving further into the legal discovery phase.
On May 23, leaders at Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport vowed to continue modernizing it and upgrading its infrastructure. “Over the past two years, we have continued to make progress, and we look forward to continuing in a positive direction,” CEO Rosa M. Beckett said.
