Gov. Reeves calls off Mississippi’s special session on judicial redistricting

By Taylor Vance | Originally published by Mississippi Today

This article is developing and will be updated.

Gov. Tate Reeves on Wednesday morning said he will cancel a special legislative session set for next week to redraw Mississippi’s state Supreme Court districts, but he indicated the state will redraw its four congressional districts, at some point. 

Reeves, on SuperTalk radio, indicated that it would be difficult for the state to redraw the congressional districts in time for the upcoming midterm election and that it could hurt Republicans overall in congressional races if Mississippi did so.

Still, he stressed he wants the state to redraw congressional districts in the future and said Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson’s hold on one of Mississippi’s four congressional seats will be ending soon.

Reeves, a Republican, said his reason for calling off next week’s the special session is the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturning an order from U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock that found the Mississippi Supreme Court districts violated the federal Voting Rights Act by diluting Black voting power and ordered the state to redraw them. 

But even though the appellate court tossed out Aycock’s initial order, it doesn’t mean that the litigation ended entirely. 

The plaintiffs in the case and the state, which are the defendants, filed a joint request at the 5th Circuit asking the court to overturn the lower court’s order and send it back down for more legal work. 

The reason the parties asked to file additional arguments with Aycock is to debate, again, whether the districts violate the Voting Rights Act, in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in the recent Louisiana v. Callais case.

So Aycock could still rule at a later date that the districts violate federal law and order the state to redraw them. 

The governor, however, said he wants the Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional and legislative districts in the future. He said he’s working closely with the Trump administration to see when the state should move.

“The question is not if we do it,” Reeves said.  “The question is when we do it.” 

Mississippi has already held primary elections for congressional seats, so Mississippi would essentially have to nullify its party primaries and hold another round of elections to redistrict in time for the November midterms. 

If the state did that, Reeves said the state could set a nationwide precedent that would allow both Republican and Democratic-led states to cancel out primary elections. He said that could thwart what is expected to be a large net gain for Republican-leaning districts nationwide in the upcoming midterms.

This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

Source: Original Article