A state-run court in the City of Jackson, Miss., will soon be able to move forward, a federal judge reaffirmed as he upheld 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.
The Mississippi Legislature’s attempt to create four unelected special circuit court judges in Hinds County is unconstitutional, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled today, while upholding House Bill 1020’s creation of a single inferior court in Jackson’s Capitol Complex Improvement District. Justices heard arguments in the case in July.
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.
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.
State senators from Jackson are asking the Mississippi Legislature for millions of dollars to help fund additional police and misdemeanor jail beds to keep those charged with low-level crimes who cannot afford bail locked up as a strategy to prevent violence as it rises in the capital city, they say. They are not asking for funds to support earlier interventions that a BOTEC Analysis study of Jackson crime recommended in 2016—which the Legislature authorized for $500,000 in taxpayer dollars. Kayode Crown reports.
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