Groups challenge Supreme Court boundary lines

Lawsuit claims there should be more Black representation on the state high court

A lawsuit has been filed by a number of groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), against the state of Mississippi, challenging the way Supreme Court districts are drawn in the state.  

The civil rights organizations, including the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, charge that the districts do not provide representation for African-Americans. 

Only four African-Americans have served on the Supreme Court since the state began voting for justices.  The court currently has one Black justice in Justice Leslie King. 

But the charge is that since about 40 percent of the state’s population is African-American, there should be more representation and the current boundary lines do not all for that.  

“These districts haven’t changed since 1987,” said Ari Savitzky, with the ACLU Voting Rights Project. “They could readily be changed so that there was a Black majority district.”

Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office has not yet responded to the lawsuit, which you can read in its entirety here.