Opponents of a 2023 state law creating a separate state-run court system within Jackson with an appointed judge and prosecutors have withdrawn their federal lawsuit. 

Last week, the plaintiffs represented by the NAACP asked the court to voluntarily dismiss all of its claims and the lawsuit, which comes after months of deliberations. The defendants and Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph, a former defendant, did not oppose. 

“Plaintiffs are heartened by reports that the CCID Court will be established with appropriate safeguards for Jackson’s residents, and have decided to drop their challenge to the manner of appointing officials to serve that court,” attorneys for the NAACP wrote in a Dec. 2 motion.

Judicial appointments have not been made to the court, which is not operational.

The lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice, which means it could be refiled if circumstances change. 

A challenge to House Bill 1020 was filed in April 2023, months after it was signed into law. 

What followed was over a year and a half in court, which included a temporary restraining order preventing judicial appointments that lasted several months and a failed attempt to secure a preliminary injunction to block appointments.  

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate said the plaintiffs have ignored the court’s directives and created “procedural chaos” through the filing of motions that don’t change his ruling on judicial immunity, which protects Randolph from civil liability. 

“Any further attempt by the plaintiffs to ignore this court’s judicial immunity ruling shall be viewed as deliberate misconduct,” Wingate wrote in a Dec. 5 order dismissing the lawsuit. 

Initially, Randolph and Gov. Tate Reeves were among defendants in the lawsuit, but they were removed not long after the lawsuit was filed.

Plaintiffs tried to keep Randolph, whose role will be to appoint a CCID judge, as a plaintiff, despite multiple written orders and verbal confirmations that he was no longer part of the lawsuit. 

Before its passage and signing, HB 1020 received pushback, with opponents seeing the court as a takeover and supporters seeing it as a way to address crime in the capital city. 

The law created the Capitol Complex Improvement District Court and expanded the Capitol Police’s presence in the existing district. 

Lawmakers gave the court the same power as municipal courts that handle misdemeanors. They also directed people convicted for misdemeanors in the CCID to be held in the state prison in Rankin County, rather than a local jail. 

HB 1020 directed the chief justice, Randolph, to appoint one judge to work in the court and the attorney general to appoint a prosecutor. In filing the lawsuit, some worried the state officials would appoint white judges to the majority Black city. 

Another lawsuit challenging a different law passed in 2023, Senate Bill 2343, was consolidated with the HB 1020 suit. Wingate granted a preliminary injunction of the bill last year, which prevents DPS from enforcing regulations stemming from the law. 

The bill calls for prior written approval for public demonstrations on a street or sidewalk at the Capitol or state-owned buildings or one where a state agency operates by the public safety commissioner or the chief of the Capitol Police, which falls under his agency. 

Attorneys in that suit were not immediately available for comment about the status of their lawsuit, now that the HB 1020 suit has been dismissed.

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