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Child care providers, parents, children, legislators and advocates gathered outside the state Capitol Thursday to call on Mississippi to use unspent welfare funds and resume accepting child care certificate applications.

Last month, the Mississippi Department of Human Services announced it will temporarily stop accepting new applications, redetermination applications and “add a child” applications for the child care certificate program for certain families as the result of the loss of COVID-19 relief funds. The hold, started March 31, will continue indefinitely. The program provides child care vouchers to eligible families, often with a co-payment fee.

MDHS explained that without the COVID-19 relief funding the number of families with child care certificates is more than it can support long term. When asked how long the hold would last, chief communications director Mark Jones explained the hold would end when the number of children with certificates dropped below 27,000 children and $12 million in monthly costs.

The week before the hold began, on March 28, 36,186 children had child care certificates. 25,300 of them fit into one of the MDHS’s priority categories. 10,800 did not.

The Mississippi Low-Income Child Care Initiative, Child Care Directors Network Alliance, Mississippi Delta Licensed Child Care Providers, and Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable organized Thursday’s gathering and  press conference to implore MDHS to tap into unused TANF funds to book the child care payment program.

“DHS has about $156 million in money from prior grant years that has gone unspent,” said Carol Burnett, MLICCI’s executive director, at the press conference.

The child care payment program gets funding from federal and state sources. It received $127 million from the Child Care Development Fund in fiscal year 2024, as well as $7 million in state appropriations, and $25.9 million transferred from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grant. 

That $25.9 million is 30% of the state’s annual TANF grant money transferred into funds for child care certificates. It is the maximum amount they’re allowed to transfer under federal law. The state also spends 85% of its money from the child care development fund on certificates, when federal law requires them to use at least 70%. 

MLICCI and others want MDHS to add to that by spending current and carryover TANF funds on child care subsidies for families that qualify for child care certificates. According to a memo MLICCI prepared, this method does not require legislative action, has no  spending limit, and is already used by other states.

Under the current hold, families can apply and get their certificates renewed if they fall in one of the following six categories: on Temporary Assistance for Needy FamiliesTANF or transitioning off of TANF, homeless, with foster children, teen parents, deployed military, orand with special needs. The Division of Early Childhood Care & Development will continue paying for certificates for all families until their certificates expire. 

In a statement, MDHS’ chief communications officer Mark Jones said “MDHS understands these concerns and reaffirms its commitment to support child care, transportation, education, and other needs of families who need to return or remain in the workforce. Our aim is to ensure our approaches are sustainable.”

Burnett, parent KyAsia Johnson, state Rep. Zakiya Summers, D-Jackson, and multiple child care providers talked about the toll the hold has taken on child care centers and families. They also stated the importance of child care to sustain the state’s workforce, keep child care providers afloat, and educate young children. 

They also urged citizens to contact the state’s political leadership to get their attention.

“This decision is putting people like me in an impossible situation,” said Johnson, a child care provider and parent. “What am I supposed to do without child care?”

Each provider spoke about how they had to explain the hold to parents, many of whom have had to pull their children out of day care. Cantrell Keyes, director of Agape Christian Academy World in Jackson, had five families pull their children out of her center. “More than half of my school tuition comes from CCPP,” she said.

Rep. Summers called on MDHS to lift the hold on child care applications, use the extra TANF funds, and communicate better with parents and providers. 

“Right now, thousands of Mississippi children might lose child care, not because the need has disappeared, but because the agency has made a choice,” she said.

The hold on child care certificates comes at a time when many child care providers and parents are struggling to stay afloat amid high costs, high turnover and high demand.

Deloris Suel, who owns Prep Company Tutorial Schools in Jackson, said, “Child care is in crisis. We’re not heading for crisis, we’re in crisis.”

Netflix has announced it will stream “She The People,” a comedy written, produced and directed by Tyler Perry based on a fictional newly elected Mississippi Lieutenant Governor, Antoinette Dunkerson, played by Terri J. Vaughn.

According to a trailer released Thursday and press about the show, the new Lt. Gov. Dunkerson character realizes her new job will be extremely tough due to a sexist and condescending governor.

Executive producers for the show include Niya Palmer, Vaughn and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. The cast also includes Tre Boyd, Dyon Brooks, Jade Nova, Jo Marie Payton and Drew Olivia Tillman.

The first eight-episode season debuts May 22 on Netflix, with a second eight-episode season premiering Aug. 14.

A Georgia poultry company that operates a Hattiesburg plant where a teenage temporary worker died has been placed again on a national list of unsafe and reckless employers. 

Mar-Jac Poultry was named one of the “Dirty Dozen” in a Thursday report by the National Council for Occupational Safety and Health. It made the list last year, too. Other companies on the list are in areas including agriculture, retail, health care, fast food, strip clubs, food manufacturing and private prisons. 

“These companies have failed to eliminate known, preventable hazards – risking lives through negligence, and in at least one case, actively opposing stronger worker protections,” the report states. 

Themes of the “Dirty Dozen” report are sudden workplace trauma, heat exposure and immigrant labor. The report’s release coincides with Workers Memorial Week, which is from April 23 to May 1.

Three workers have died in Mar-Jac facilities since 2020, including 16-year-old Duvan Pérez at its Hattiesburg processing plant in 2023. 

While cleaning a deboning machine, he was caught in a rotating shaft and pulled in, according to an investigation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Federal labor laws don’t allow those under the age of 18 to work in meat processing because of dangerous machinery. 

A February 2023 wrongful death lawsuit filed by Pérez’s family alleges that a temporary staffing agency assigned him to complete work that he was legally unable to do due to his age. The suit also alleges Mar-Jac had a history of worker safety issues. 

In a statement after the teenager’s death, Mar-Jac said staffing companies are responsible for verifying employee’s age and identification, and an attorney for the company told NBC News last year that Pérez used identification of a 32-year-old man to get the job. 

A jury trial for the lawsuit is scheduled for March 11, 2026, in Forrest County. 

Last year, OSHA cited Mar-Jac for over $212,000 in penalties for multiple safety failures, including failure to protect from hazards like falls, machine entanglement and electrocution. Last summer, Mar-Jac settled with OSHA and agreed to pay nearly $165,000 in fines and implement safety measures. 

At one of Mar-Jac’s Alabama plants, investigators from the U.S. Department of Labor found children working on the kill floor deboning poultry and cutting carcasses – some who had been working there for months. 

Again, the company said the minors were hired with documents showing they were over 18 years old.

“Mar-Jac will continue to vigorously defend itself and expects to prevail in this matter,” the company said in a statement to ABC News. “Mar-Jac is committed to complying with all relevant law.”

If the New Orleans Saints choose Jaxson Dart with the ninth pick of the NFL Draft Thursday night, it would not be the first time the Saints have chosen a Rebel quarterback in the first round.

Surely, most readers already knew that, and we’ll get to the other time that happened later in this missive. But first, should the Saints take Dart? For that matter, should they use that first round pick for any quarterback? Or should they use that early pick to bolster another position where they need immediate help? After all, there are so many places they need help.

Me? I would take an offensive tackle or an edge rusher. Among the Saints’ many, many other needs, those are the most critical. Nearly every draft expert will tell you the 2025 draft is much richer in both edge rushers and those who block the edge than it is quarterbacks. You also can make the case that there’s no good reason to draft a quarterback until you can surround him with adequate protection.

The Saints have so many needs they might best be served to trade that ninth pick for more choices. New coach Kellen Moore inherits the NFL’s oldest team. The Saints desperately need to get younger and better at any number of positions. It would make some sense to trade the ninth pick for a pick later in the first and perhaps a couple additional picks in the second and third rounds. Or, perhaps use that ninth pick for an offensive tackle and then use their second round pick, the 40th overall, to pick a possible quarterback of the future.

We shall see. Interestingly, Dart is not even the highest Ole Miss player on most experts’ draft board. Both defensive tackle Walter Nolen and edge rusher Princely Umanmielen are rated above Dart when it comes to best available player no matter their position. I thought Nolen was hands down the best college football player – and the best potential pro – in Mississippi last season. If opponents did not double-team Nolen, he disrupted most everything they tried.

This year’s draft, which will take place in Green Bay over three days beginning Thursday night, will be in stark contrast to 1971, the first and only time the Saints drafted an Ole Miss quarterback in the first round. National TV cameras will focus on the highly choreographed first-round proceedings Thursday night. Most of the expected early picks will be present. A huge crowd will cheer and jeer the picks in person.

Back in ’71, Archie Manning nearly forgot there was a draft. Back then, the draft was held in January. None of the expected early choices were present. There was no TV broadcast and certainly no in-person crowd.

Manning, who had just married and honeymooned in Acapulco, was in Oxford, still attending Ole Miss classes. The draft, which lasted 17 rounds, began on a Monday morning. On Sunday afternoon, Manning received a call from the late, great Ole Miss sports information director Billy Gates. I’ll retell the story the way Archie told it to me.

Gates asked Archie if he remembered that the draft would begin on Monday morning.

“I guess I forgot,” Manning replied.

Gates reminded him that the Boston Patriots were picking first, the Saints second and the Houston Oilers third. “All three have called wanting to know where you will be. I’m pretty sure one of those three teams are going to pick you,” Gates told him. “Why don’t you come to my office tomorrow morning at 9, and I’ll let them all know you will be here.”

Archie said he would be there and that’s where he was when he heard the Patriots had taken Jim Plunkett, the 1970 Heisman Trophy winner out of Stanford, with the first pick of the draft. Moments later, Gates’ phone rang again. He answered, and then handed the phone to Manning.

John Mecom, the Saints’ owner, was on the line to tell him he was a Saint. 

“I talked to Mecom for two minutes, then Mecom put general manager Vic Schwenk on the line and we talked, and then I talked to J.D. Roberts, the head coach, for a couple minutes more. I remember there was a photographer there from the Associated Press to take pictures. The whole thing lasted 15 minutes.”

And that was that. 

“I made it on time to my 10 o’clock class,” Manning said.

He learned when he got home from class that nobody had taken Michigan All-American offensive tackle Dan Dierdorf, whom Manning had befriended at the Hula Bowl, in the first round. 

“I was excited because I thought we were going to get Dan and I knew how good he was,” Manning said.

He knew – or at least he thought he knew – his blind side would be protected. And then came the news that with their second pick of the draft, the Saints had chosen Grambling offensive lineman Sam Holden.

Dierdorf, picked by the St. Louis Cardinals later in the second round, became a five-time All-Pro, one of the best-ever offensive tackles in NFL history. Holden, a New Orleans native, lasted one year and never started for the Saints.

There’s a lesson there for the current Saints. If you are going to pick an offensive tackle first, at least pick one who can play. And if you do choose Dart, please, please find him some protection.

The sports gambling lobby, as it has done in other states, has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Mississippi politicians trying to convince them to legalize mobile sports betting.

Part of that effort was an unreported trip to the Super Bowl in New Orleans this year for House Speaker Jason White, his staff and a couple of their spouses. The trip was paid for, at least in part, by DraftKings, one of the nation’s highest-grossing gaming companies that has invested heavily in lobbying for legal online betting. 

Thanks to a loophole in Mississippi’s lax lobbying laws, there is no public report to date of the expensive weekend in lobbying reports that are supposed to document spending on behalf of state employees. The cheapest tickets to the Super Bowl retailed for nearly $3,000 each. The group attended the game less than a week after White oversaw the House’s approval of legislation to legalize mobile sports betting in Mississippi. 

The Republican speaker, one of the most powerful politicians in the state, has repeatedly said that legalizing mobile sports betting is one of his top priorities. He has continued to push for legal online betting after it has repeatedly died in the Senate. Proponents, such as White, say legalization would be a financial boon to the state. It would also further enrich the gambling companies that facilitate online betting.

The speaker and his staff enjoyed the Super Bowl weekend as mobile sports betting became one of the defining issues of the 2025 legislative session. White and the House leaders took the issue so seriously earlier this year that they blocked other legislation in response to the Senate’s opposition to legal sports betting, according to Senate leaders.

White and his spokesperson, who also attended the Super Bowl, refused to comment or answer questions about the Super Bowl trip.

While in New Orleans, White posed for a photograph in front of the Superdome with his wife, his taxpayer-funded security guard, two House staff members and the husband of one of his staffers. After Mississippi Today discovered the photo, DraftKings and John Morgan Hughes, whose Jackson-based Ten One Strategies firm lobbies for the Sports Betting Alliance, a group representing DraftKings and other gaming organizations, confirmed that the gambling industry paid for the game day tickets.

The Boston-based sports gambling giant has been at the forefront of a years-long lobbying push to legalize online betting in Mississippi and around the country. In a statement, a company spokesperson said DraftKings “follows the required reporting requirements in all jurisdictions, including Mississippi.” 

The company declined to answer how much it spent on the group and whether it paid for perks beyond the game tickets in New Orleans — where some of White’s entourage documented extravagant Super Bowl festivities on social media.

Super Bowl trip was ‘unforgettable experience’

Taylor Spillman, White’s communications director, and her husband, Trey Spillman, who serves as Rankin County’s prosecuting attorney, photographed their weekend in the Big Easy. 

They mingled in a luxury box suite at the Superdome, private spaces that cost between $750,000 and $2 million. They took photographs with celebrities such as former Today show host Hoda Kotb and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. And there were pregame drinks at what appeared to be Brennan’s, the famed New Orleans Creole restaurant that served as the weekend stomping ground for guests of DraftKings.   

A day after the Super Bowl, Trey Spillman took to social media to thank DraftKings for the experience. 

“Unforgettable experience at Super Bowl LIX. Thank you @draftkings for the hospitality! #sports”

But after Mississippi Today asked the Spillmans this week about the trip, he edited the social media post to remove any mention of DraftKings and the company’s “hospitality.” 

“Unforgettable experience at Super Bowl LIX. #sports,” the edited post reads. 

The Spillmans did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.

Online gambling money pours in to politicians

Mississippi Today asked DraftKings why the lobbyist registered to represent the company in Mississippi did not disclose the Super Bowl trip for the speaker’s family and staff in his most recent round of expenditure reports.

In response, a spokesperson for the company pointed to state lobbying law that gives the clients of lobbyists, in this case DraftKings, until the end of the year to document gifts to public officials. 

Mississippi’s lobbying laws do allow for a distinction between individual lobbyists and clients, leaving open to interpretation what lobbyists and their clients are required to report and when they’re required to report their expenses. The DraftKings spokesperson said that distinction allows it to wait until the end of the year to report the excursion for White’s group. This means DraftKings is claiming the company or the Sports Betting Alliance, not its lobbyist, funded the Super Bowl outing.

Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office regulates lobbyists in Mississippi and enforces the state’s lobbying laws. Watson, who has accepted $1,000 himself from a DraftKings-affiliated PAC, and his office publish an annual lobbying guide.

In the most recent guide, it says a lobbyist’s client is only required to file an annual report the following January — nearly nine months after the regular legislative session ends. That is the provision DraftKings cited when asked why its lobbyist did not document the Super Bowl trip on the most recent report. 

Elizabeth Jonson, a spokesperson for Watson’s office, told Mississippi Today in a statement that if a gambling company provided football tickets or other items of value to public officials “for the purpose of lobbying,” then the company is required to disclose those gifts, at some point, in their lobbying reports.  

Unlike many other states, Mississippi has no “gift law” banning or limiting how much money lobbyists or others can spend on politicians or government officials.

In total, the Sports Betting Alliance, a group representing DraftKings and other gaming organizations, has spent approximately $454,000 since 2024 on lobbying fees and campaign donations to advocate for mobile sports betting, according to a review of campaign finance and lobbying reports.

Of that money, the Sports Betting Alliance has spent over $254,000 in Mississippi on lobbying expenses, ad campaigns and meals for lawmakers, according to lobbying records filed with the secretary of state.

The SBA and its employees have donated at least another $200,000 to Mississippi politicians, according to campaign finance reports since 2014. SBA routed the money through TenOne PAC, the PAC controlled by Hughes’ lobbying firm. Hughes and the firm have also contributed $32,500 of their own money to the PAC, which could have also been used for sports betting advocacy, although the PAC supports other causes as well.

Arkansas governor faced Super Bowl questions

At the Super Bowl, Huckabee Sanders posed with White’s spokesperson, Taylor Spillman. A year prior, the Arkansas governor faced questions about who paid her tab for a trip to the Super Bowl. Sanders later clarified that she and her husband paid for their commercial flight, hotel and tickets to the game. Arkansas, unlike Mississippi, has laws requiring politicians to report gifts from special interests and imposes limits on them.

Sanders’ spokesperson said she paid her own way again to this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans. 

In response to media reports about her trip to the 2024 Super Bowl, Arkansas officials acknowledged that Arkansas State Police provided security on the trip to Huckabee Sanders and her family.

White, the Mississippi speaker, also appears to have had state-funded security on his trip to this year’s Super Bowl.

One of the people photographed in New Orleans with White is the speaker’s designated security guard with the Department of Public Safety’s Executive Protection Division. When asked whether any state resources were used to send the guard to the Super Bowl with the speaker, Bailey Martin, a spokesperson for the state Department of Public Safety, said such state-funded protection would be “expected.”

“The speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives has been assigned an executive protection detail for many years,” Martin said in a written statement. “It would be expected for agents assigned to the speaker’s detail to attend such events when traveling out of state.”

Two other state employees who work closely with the speaker in the House were photographed inside the Superdome with the Spillmans. One is White’s administrative assistant, and the other is a House committee assistant. There were seven people, including the speaker, photographed in front of the Superdome. Those involved have not disclosed whether others joined the Mississippi group.

The average Super Bowl ticket price this year was around $4,708, according to the online ticket platform TickPick, but prices varied widely.

The feverish push to expand the lucrative mobile sports betting industry in states around the country traces back to a change in the federal legal landscape.  

Other legislation used as leverage for betting

Commercial sports betting was effectively banned, with a few exceptions, until 2018 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1992 prohibition. Sports gambling companies such as DraftKings then launched a full-court press lobbying campaign to bring sports betting to tens of millions of mobile phones around the country, an effort reported to be the fastest expansion of legalized gambling in American history.

Around 40 states have some form of legalized sports betting, though about 20 have full online betting with multiple operators, according to Action Network, a sports betting application and news site. Some states only have in-person betting, and some only have a single online operator in the state.

Mississippi has been one of the holdouts, largely due to fears that legalization could harm the bottom line of the state’s casinos and increase the prevalence of gambling addiction. Influential religious institutions in the Bible Belt state have also opposed the spread of gambling. 

Mississippi allows sports betting now, but only inside casinos.

After passing the House in 2023 and 2024, legislation legalizing online betting has died in the Senate. 

On Feb. 8, the day before the Super Bowl, White reminded his social media followers that Mississippi had attempted to legalize mobile sports betting for three years.

“We have now passed it again this year,” White wrote. “Your issue is on the other end of the Capitol.” 

This session, White and powerful House leaders took an unusually bare-knuckled approach in their push for mobile sports betting.

Democratic Sen. David Blount, the Senate Gaming chairman, has refused to advance mobile sports betting out of his committee. He said House leaders appeared to retaliate this year by killing at least four other gaming-related bills. 

One bill would have allowed the Mississippi Department of Human Services to collaborate with the state Gaming Commission to withhold cash winnings from people with outstanding child support, a sum totaling $1.7 billion. Federal data shows Mississippi has the worst child support collection rates in the nation and one of the highest rates of child poverty. 

Another bill would have changed the law dealing with leasing state-owned water bottoms on the Gulf Coast, an issue important to casinos. All of the stalled bills were supported by Republicans. 

“It certainly appears that the position of the House is, ‘We won’t pass any legislation related to gaming, even if it’s supported by a Republican statewide official or has the unanimous support of the Senate, the industry and regulators,’” Blount said. “None of that appears to be able to pass the House until they get mobile sports betting.” 

In a separate move, House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar attempted to increase taxes on Mississippi casinos, some of which have opposed mobile sports betting legalization. Lamar, one of White’s top lieutenants, made clear his casino tax increase proposal, which stood little chance of passing into law, was a political shot at the casino industry for the blockage of online betting. 

White also attempted to leverage other legislation, including the state income tax and the public retirement system, to coerce the Senate into passing mobile sports betting, Senate leaders said. 

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who leads the Senate, did not respond to a request for comment.

Proponents of mobile sports betting in Mississippi say the state is losing between $40 million and $80 million a year in tax revenue by keeping mobile sports betting illegal. And sports gambling companies are losing out on a new customer base in Mississippi, which is home to a thriving illegal online gambling market. 

Days after House lawmakers made those arguments on the floor of the Mississippi House in Jackson, the speaker’s staffers were enjoying the hospitality of DraftKings at its Super Bowl weekend festivities.

“We view these things as DraftKings in real life,” said Shawn Henley, DraftKings’ chief customer officer, of the company’s Super Bowl weekend events. “We also have tons of business partners and will spend a lot of time with them.”

Mississippi lawmakers will convene in a special legislative session in the coming weeks to finalize a state budget, as they were unable to agree on one during their regular session. 

The governor has the power to set the agenda during a special session, and Gov. Tate Reeves has said he’s open to adding mobile sports betting legislation to the upcoming special session agenda.

The Clevelands take a comprehensive look at this weekend’s NFL Draft, assessing Mississippi prospects and what the New Orleans Saints should do with the ninth pick. Many experts believe the Saints will take Ole Miss quarterback Dart, but the Clevelands are not so sure. It would not be the first time the Saints have taken an Ole Miss QB in the first round as Rick remembers and recounts the circumstances.

Stream all episodes here.

Faced with the options of a younger, self-described radical incumbent mayor and a more moderate and seasoned state senator, Jackson voters chose the latter as the Capital City’s likely new leader Tuesday.

Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba became mayor in 2017 after beating state Sen. John Horhn and seven other candidates in the democratic primary that year. This year, Horhn’s fourth time running for mayor, the 32-year legislator flipped the script, handily beating Lumumba roughly 3 to 1 in a head-to-head runoff.

By just after 9 p.m. with all but one precinct counted, Horhn’s vote count reached 17,729 compared to Lumumba’s 5,940.

Read Mississippi Today’s live election blog documenting the day and evening.

Election officials began counting ballots at the Jackson Fire Department’s downtown station after the polls closed at 7 p.m. Turnout in northeast Jackson caught officials by surprise, requiring the delivery of more ballots, which seemed to bode well for Horhn, who carried Ward 1 by wide margins in the April 1 primary. The winner of the Democratic primary usually goes on to become mayor, but Horhn will still face one Republican and four independent candidates in the General Election come June.

Residents in wards 6 and 7 also had an opportunity to vote for a new city councilperson Tuesday. In Ward 6, located in south Jackson, voters chose between Lashia Brown-Thomas and Emon Thompson Sr. The winner of the primary will become the next councilmember as there is no Ward 6 challenger in the General Election.

In Ward 7, encompassing parts of downtown, Belhaven, Midtown and Fondren, voters selected either Kevin Parkinson or Quint Withers. The winner faces one Republican and one independent in the General Election.

Amid a national maelstrom of attacks on academic freedom, the fate of James Bowley, the former chair and professor of Religious Studies at Millsaps College, hinges on a 10-word email he sent to his class of three students the morning after the presidential election. Nearly a month after a grievance committee repudiated his subsequent termination over those 10 words, his status remains in flux.

The day following his email, Bowley found out that he had been placed on paid administrative leave pending a review of his use of a Millsaps email account “to share personal opinions” with his students. 

Around the days of the election, racist messages targeting African American students had been sent using the anonymous campus messaging platform Yik Yak. The FBI had informed the Millsaps community via email that it, along with law enforcement and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, was investigating those messages. 

“I personally would not send that kind of content to my class. But I understand the disappointment behind the email, understand the human sympathy, especially what happened with the Yik Yak post,” said David Wood, chair of the Modern Languages department at Millsaps College, referring to racist and threatening messages directed at African American students on the anonymous messaging platform Yik Yak, around the days of the 2024 presidential election. 

“I knew the students were fearful. So I canceled my class,” Bowley said. “And I do not regret that for a second.” His 10-word email explained why the class was being cancelled: “to mourn and process this racist fascist country.”

Bowley filed a grievance against his leave of absence with the university’s grievance committee, which could not identify any specific policy that he had violated. It recommended in December that Bowley be reinstated immediately; that the Interim provost issue a formal apology to him, and that he be compensated for a loss of income that arose from his removal from a study abroad course he was supposed to have taught.

Weeks later, Bowley’s employment was terminated, by the interim provost — a decision he appealed. The interim provost at the time, Stephanie Rolph, was a candidate for the full-time position. 

Now, nearly a month after the grievance committee decided to allow the terms of Bowley’s reinstatement be negotiated, his employment remains in flux as he waits for Millsaps’ president to affirm or overrule their decision. 

The purpose of the college’s action “is to demonstrate the power of the administration over the faculty,” Bowley said. “I think the whole point is to make faculty self censor.”

The termination of Bowley comes amid a nationwide crackdown by universities and the Trump administration on speech by students and faculty. Since 2023, dozens of faculty members have been disciplined, or even fired. Since March, more than 1,500 international students have seen their visas revoked, with some even being detained without due process. And top universities have seen threats of funding freezes if they do not agree to laundry lists of demands and restrictions. 

On Monday, Harvard University, which has vowed not to “surrender its independence or constitutional rights,” sued the Trump administration in an attempt to block them from freezing $2.2 billion in federal funding and an additional $1 billion in grants, which the administration in a letter had said it would do if the university did not overhaul its admissions and hiring policies, among others, allow for federal oversight of its operations, and commission external audits of a number of departments. 

This letter, which the Trump administration now says was sent in error, came about a month after Columbia University capitulated to similar demands by the administration – in its case, which included empowering campus security to make arrests, suspending students involved in protests last spring, and placing its department of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies under administrative receivership. 

On Tuesday, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, which has more than 800 member institutions, issued a public statement, condemning “undue government intrusion in the lives of those who learn, live, and work on our campuses” and “coercive use of public research funding.” 

Nearly 200 leaders of educational institutions signed the statement, including Millsaps College – the only Mississippi institution to do so. The president of Columbia University did not. 

“Millsaps promises free speech to its faculty members and when it makes a promise like that it should stand by that promise and protect it,” said Haley Gluhanich, senior program counsel of FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. In Bowley’s case, she said, “We saw these violations of fundamental due process rights – the fact that he was put on administrative leave before he even had a hearing.”

Millsaps’ Faculty Handbook says a faculty member is “entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing the subject matter of the course, but should be careful not to introduce controversial matter which has no relation to the subject.” It elaborates that “when speaking or writing as a citizen, the teacher is free from institutional censorship or discipline, but this special position in the community imposes special obligations,” because the public may interpret the words of a faculty member as being representative of the position of the institution. 

However, in the grievance committee’s December recommendation, it found that the handbook “does not offer guidance on how to distinguish personnel matters from matters of academic freedom,” and that this lack of clarity appeared to expose tenured faculty members to a disciplinary process that was subject to the sole decision of any acting provost, with no recourse. 

“When they are sharing a personal opinion, a criticism of an election,” said Gluhanich, “no reasonable person is going to assume that that is the speech of the college.” 

“Millsaps truly shaped me. It broke down the conceptions that I had of the world and religion and philosophy and ideas. By doing so it forced me to build them back up,” said Elizabeth Land, an alumna of Millsaps College. “I was taught to think for myself. And that’s a gift that you can’t put a price tag on.”

Land circulated a petition last December calling for Bowley’s reinstatement – a decision that in April, has yet to be made. 

Joey Lee, director of communications at Millsaps College said, on behalf of the office of the president, that they could not comment on ongoing personnel issues.  

“If I win,” Bowley said, “It is a win for students and for faculty and for academic freedom.”

Michael Guidry is an alumnus of Millsaps College, having attended from 2001 to 2005

Editor’s note: Nina Rifkind is an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi Law School and the granddaughter of one of the founders of a major national law firm that recently settled a dispute with President Donald Trump. She agreed to write about that settlement and about her grandfather’s story for Mississippi Today Ideas.

Last month, the Trump administration issued an executive order aimed at the New York law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison (known to many as just “Paul, Weiss”).

The order threatened the firm with withdrawal of the security clearances required to do certain legal work as retribution for work Mark Pomerantz, a former Paul, Weiss partner, had done while employed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in connection with the investigation of Trump’s businesses. Within days, Paul, Weiss announced that it had struck a deal with the Trump administration, offering, among other things, millions of dollars’ worth of free legal work for administration endorsed causes, and changes in hiring practices in exchange for the dismissal of the executive order.

While I had been angry about many of the acts of this administration that seemed to undermine the very institutions and ideals of American government and society that I had been raised to revere, this one struck particularly close to my heart.

On the one hand, I had no particular interest in the affairs of this law firm, located half a continent away from my home in Mississippi, and to which I had no personal connection except that it was where my grandfather, Simon H. Rifkind, had practiced law until his death at the age of 94 in 1995. On the other hand, it seemed to me that the executive orders addressed to this law firm, and, ultimately, a handful of others, were an assault on my chosen profession, on our legal system and on our democracy as a whole.

So when the chairman of the firm Brad Karp, in defense of the decision to make a deal, cited the firm’s “Statement of Firm Principles,” written by my grandfather in 1963, I contacted my sister, Amy Rifkind, a lawyer practicing in Washington, D.C. We quickly decided to speak out. We did so in the form of a letter to Mr. Karp, explaining that his decision was an affront to those very principles he claimed to defend.

In that letter, we wrote that our grandfather believed that to practice law in this country is a privilege that comes with “responsibilities both to our profession and our country” and a duty “to protect ‘the prizes of our civilization.’” In light of those duties, we noted that, “We are confident that neither our grandfather, nor his colleagues with whom he built Paul, Weiss, would have negotiated a truce for themselves when the rest of the legal profession remains under threat for doing its jobs as lawyers. Consistent with his values, he would have above all sought to protect the independence of the bar, not just the firm.”

READ MORE: The full letter the Rifkind sisters wrote to Brad Karp

In writing the letter, we hoped that our small evocation of our grandfather’s enduring values would inspire others to speak out with their own messages of hope and courage in the face of adversity. We have been simultaneously stunned, humbled and honored by the media outlets (including Mississippi Today) and individuals that have chosen to amplify our message.

My grandfather was born in Russia at the turn of the last century. He often said that he was born and lived in the 16th century until, at the age of 9, he left his little village and immigrated with his mother and sisters to the United States. Before he left, he had never seen a power-driven piece of machinery, experienced running water or worn any factory-made garment. As is the case with many immigrants, he arrived in this country with no ability to speak English, but with a determination to make a home here. And also like many immigrants, by his teens, that determination had developed into a deep sense of patriotism. That love of country continued to develop throughout his life, fueled by his own varied personal and professional experiences.

He served the public in a variety of ways. He served as a legislative aide to Sen. Robert Wagner, helping to draft some of the New Deal legislation that helped stem the effects of the Great Depression. In 1945-46, as an advisor to Generals Eisenhower and McNarney in Europe, he brought to light the horror and despair experienced by hundreds of thousands of residents of the displaced persons camps in the wake of the Nazi genocide. He spent a decade as a federal judge in the Southern District of New York and a year as special master for a multi-state dispute over use of the Colorado River. But even in private practice at Paul, Weiss, where he spent most of his career and where many of his clients were large private corporations, he believed his work should, and did, serve the public good.

We all know that lawyers get a bad rap as they are often described as greedy and predatory. But to hear my grandfather talk about the practice of law, as my sister and I did during our family’s regular Sunday afternoon visits to his apartment throughout our childhood, you would think he was part of the noblest profession in the world. As a fierce defender of our adversarial system, he believed everyone deserved vigorous and ethical counsel, no matter how rich or poor, popular or unpopular. He believed that every client, whether paying top dollar or receiving the benefit of pro bono representation, deserved the highest quality of work his or her lawyer could provide.

And he believed, as he wrote at the end of his life, that “lawyers are licensed beneficiaries of privileges and immunities received as gifts from the community in which they practice and that they hold these gifts in trust for the service of the community.” In other words, all lawyers, regardless of the nature of their practice, who take their roles seriously and perform their duties with skill and integrity, provide a benefit to society.

My grandfather’s life spanned nearly the entirety of the 20th Century — a century that, despite some very dark moments, saw our country lead the charge in achieving the greatest advances in freedom and prosperity in human history. And while he benefited from those advances, he never lost sight of the fact that the foundations of that freedom, equality and prosperity are fragile and dependent on the individual and institutional pillars of our American democracy.

Indeed, in 1954, he wrote: “Every American generation has inherited from its predecessor the memory of freedom, of liberty and of constitutional government; but every generation if it would retain these prizes of our civilization, must reacquire them in its own lifetime. This day when the winds are full of doctrines subversive of the Constitution, inimical to our liberties, is the time to redevelop muscle and determination to defend them. In their defense we shall survive.”  

In the most important respects, my family is not unusual. These principles and values were passed down through casual interactions, a commitment to religious and secular traditions and through modeled behavior. We laughed when my grandfather’s views seemed out of touch with the times. And we used his values as a blueprint to form our own paths and priorities.

I assume most of us grew up with at least some influential figures who adhered to and communicated a set of core values, whether explicitly or by example. And I suspect that despite our different backgrounds and experiences, if we examine those values closely, we will find that there is more that unifies us than divides us.

My sister and I wrote the letter to Mr. Karp as a reminder of what Paul, Weiss’s stated “principles” really mean for the legal profession and for American democracy. In doing so, we revisited those core beliefs ourselves, and hopefully inspired others to as well.

Perhaps, with such values in mind, we can rise above the destructive forces of greed, cynicism and selfish grievance, remember that together we are more than the sum of our parts, and continue our collective march toward freedom, equality and prosperity.

Nina Rifkind is a graduate of Yale College and New York University School of Law.  Following law school, she practiced law first in New York and later in Los Angeles. Since moving to Oxford, she has continued to practice in a variety of capacities, most recently as an independent contract attorney and is an adjunct professor at the University of Mississippi Law School, where she teaches the Law and Religion course. She has taught legal writing at the USC Gould School of Law and Advanced Legal Writing at the University of Mississippi. She currently serves on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Oxford and the Oxford School District Foundation.