Trial starts in case that seeks more Black justices on Mississippi’s highest court

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi has the largest percentage of Black residents in the U.S., but only one Black justice serves on the state’s highest court.

A federal judge started hearing arguments Monday in a lawsuit that seeks to compel Mississippi to redraw its three Supreme Court districts to increase the chances of Black candidates being elected. The district lines have been unchanged since 1987.

About 38% of Mississippi residents are Black. The state has nine Supreme Court justices, with three elected from each of the districts in the northern, central and southern parts of the state. Eight of the current justices are white, and one is Black.

Four Black justices have served on the Mississippi Supreme Court, and never more than one at a time.

“The reason for this persistent underrepresentation is that Mississippi employs Supreme Court district boundaries that dilute the voting strength of Black Mississippians in Supreme Court elections,” attorneys for Black plaintiffs who are challenging the system said in written arguments.

State attorneys said the current districts are fair.

The federal Voting Rights Act guarantees Black voters of the Central District “an equal opportunity to participate and to elect Justices, not that their favored candidate will win every election,” state attorneys said in written arguments ahead of the trial that began Monday in Oxford.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true»