JACKSON, ma'am. — A federal judge has ruled that he will allow Mississippi officials to move forward with establishing a state court in part of the predominantly Black capital of Jackson, despite objections from the NAACP.
Lawyers for the civil rights group had filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Jackson residents, saying the new court undermines democracy because local voters or local elected officials won't choose their judge or prosecutors.
The new Capitol Complex Improvement District Court will have a judge appointed by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, and prosecutors appointed by the attorney general — officials who are white and conservative.
In a ruling filed late Sunday, U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate denied requests to block the new court, which was created by Mississippi's majority-white, Republican-controlled Legislature. Jackson is governed by Democrats.
“None of the plaintiffs has alleged that he or she is in actual or immediate danger of suffering any concrete and specific harm as a result of the creation of the CCID court or the contested appointment of a judge or prosecutors to that court,” Wingate wrote .
Under a law signed this spring by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, the new court will come into existence on Jan. 1 and have jurisdiction in a part of Jackson that includes government buildings and some residential and commercial areas.
Reeves and lawmakers who support the new court say it is part of an effort to control crime in Jackson — a city that has seen more than 100 murders in the past three years, out of a population of about 150,000.
The Capitol Complex Improvement District Court will have the same power as the municipal courts, which handle misdemeanor cases, traffic violations and initial appearances for certain criminal charges. People convicted in most municipal courts face a prison sentence in a local jail. Those convicted by the new court will be held in a state prison, near people convicted of more serious crimes.
Most municipal judges are appointed by city officials. Jackson has a black mayor and a majority black city council. The judge of the new court does not have to live in Jackson.
Legal arguments in the case concerned racial discrimination, public safety and democracy.
The state law establishing the new court also expands the patrol area for Capitol Police. State police previously patrolled near government buildings in downtown Jackson, but the new law added other parts of the city, including more affluent residential and commercial areas.
In September, the Mississippi Supreme Court struck down the part of the same law that required the state's chief judge to appoint four circuit judges in addition to the four elected circuit judges in Hinds County. The county includes Jackson, but is also predominantly black and governed by Democrats.
The justices wrote that longstanding Mississippi law allows the chief justice to appoint some justices for specific reasons, such as to address a backlog of cases. But they wrote that “we see nothing special or unique” about Hinds County's four appointed circuit judges in the 2023 law, “certainly nothing that expressly binds them to any specific legal necessity or requirement.”
