Lawsuit: Mississippi violates rights by appointing judges

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is violating its own constitution with a law that requires some judges to be appointed rather than elected in the state’s majority-Black capital city and its surrounding county. That is according to a lawsuit filed Monday by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Mississippi Center for Justice, the ACLU of Mississippi and the MacArthur Justice Center. It is the second lawsuit filed since Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed bills Friday to expand state policing in Jackson, to establish a lower-level court with an appointed judge and to authorize four appointed judges to work alongside the four elected circuit judges in Hinds County, which is home to Jackson.