Representative Gene Newman, R-Pearl, says you can’t advertise to sell cocaine – and abortion should be the same.
“It’s as simple as this. You can’t advertise to sell cocaine. You can’t advertise to sell anything that’s illegal. And that’s all this does. If something is illegal, you cannot advertise for it.”
But other lawmakers disagree.
Newman’s bill, House Bill 31, would prohibit the advertisement of abortion in Mississippi. It has been assigned to the House Public Health and Judiciary B committees.
Public Health Chair Sam Creekmore IV, R-New Albany, said that although he is pro-life, he doesn’t believe anything restricting advertisement should be written into law. He plans to kill the bill.
“I’m pro-life, but we have civil liberties and rights,” Creekmore said. “We advertise for what some people think are not good things. We respect the rights of free commerce and civil liberties. I don’t think that should be something we legislate.”
Creekmore said he met with Newman because “when people have bills, I like to hear their side.”
But, he went on, “Gene Newman and I reached an understanding that I’m not going to bring it out .”
Newman said he got the idea to write the bill last legislative session during conversations about crisis pregnancy centers.
CPCs are counseling centers that typically offer little or no medical services but give out freebies such as diapers and pregnancy tests. Critics say the centers often lure women in under false pretenses, such as appearing to offer abortion services, and then steer women away from abortions through deception, fear-mongering, or scheduling appointments so far out in advance that by the time they come around, abortion is no longer feasible.
Last year, CPCs got $10 million in tax credits and were touted as the primary solution to help women in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade and a near total abortion ban in Mississippi.
According to Newman, CPCs are still being overshadowed by abortion advertisements.
“I learned they have problems when they try to advertise their services, they get overrode by abortion agencies running ads in Mississippi, so it’s very hard for them to get their word out online. It kind of aggravated me that you got people in here advertising for something that’s illegal in the state of Mississippi.”
With Creekmore planning to not bring it out for a vote, the bill is poised to die in committee.
Research shows that currently, the abortion ban has stopped just over a quarter of Mississippi abortion seekers — likely those with the lowest social determinants — from attaining an abortion. The other roughly 75% of abortion seekers have found ways to travel out of state or mail order abortion medication online from overseas.
However, it’s not clear that the abortion ads the bill would ban — not including web sites that list and give directions to clinics in other states or how to obtain medication — have played any role in those numbers.
Ole Miss football great Patrick Willis was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame this week. Credit: Ole Miss Athletics
Patrick Willis, the best linebacker I ever covered, made a lasting impression the first time I saw him. It was Oct. 18, 2003. He was an 18-year-old freshman at Ole Miss.
Willis was a lightly recruited linebacker from Tennessee who did not even receive an offer from his home state Volunteers. His other Division I offer was from Memphis. Indeed, I don’t think I had ever heard his name called until Ole Miss kicked off to Alabama to begin the game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Alabama’s Ramzee Robinson, one of those legions of fleet-footed, sturdy Crimson Tide defensive backs we’ve seen through the years, gathered in the kickoff at his own 10-yard line. He probably thought he was just getting started when he reached the 17-yard line. He was wrong.
As I wrote that day, “…Freshman Patrick Willis hit him like a speeding pickup truck. Wham! Robinson went backwards. It was the first of many whams!”
It set the tone for the day. Willis and his Rebel teammates played the first quarter as if they were flying, took a 24-0 lead and clocked Alabama 43-28. Afterward, David Cutcliffe, the Rebels coach said, “Hitting like that can be contagious.”
Rick Cleveland
Now, I’m not going to sit here and write that I knew then that Patrick Willis was going to be a College Football Hall of Famer (inducted in 2019) or a Pro Football Hall of Famer (announced Thursday), but I did know I was watching someone special. It’s not often you see an Alabama runner, at full speed, slammed a couple yards backwards. Usually, it’s the other way around.
But Willis hit like that for four seasons at Ole Miss, the last three on losing football teams. He was anything but a loser. He was twice a first team All American, twice All-SEC. He led Ole Miss in tackles as a sophomore and led the SEC as a junior and senior. He won the Butkus and Lambert and Conerly trophies.
If you watched Ole Miss often during those four seasons, you saw him do what he did to Ramzee Robinson to backs from LSU, Auburn, Arkansas, Tennessee and anyone else the Rebels played. He really was the perfect linebacker: big, strong, fast, quick and remarkably instinctive.
Off the field, he was a thoughtful and respectful gentleman, even in the worst of times. And there were plenty of those his last two years under Ed Orgeron. I particularly remember when Jerious Norwood ran for 204 yards and four touchdowns in State’s Egg Bowl victory over Ole Miss in Willis’s junior season. It probably won the Conerly Trophy for Norwood and lost it for Willis, who made 15 tackles and intercepted a pass that day. Willis gave credit where it was due, calling Norwood “the best back I’ve faced.”
Willis’ excellence and demeanor was all the more remarkable when you considered his childhood. He grew up in poverty, working in cotton fields to earn money to feed younger siblings. When his alcoholic father became abusive, he and his siblings moved in with Willis’ high school basketball coach. Nevertheless, Willis was All-State in football both as a running back and linebacker and also played basketball and baseball.
You may remember that Willis was considered a late first round or early second round draft choice following his senior season, but then blew up during postseason workouts, all-star games and the NFL combine. At 240 pounds, he ran a 4.38 40-yard dash on Ole Miss Senior Day. At the combine, his vertical leap was measured at 39 inches. He was the defensive MVP in the Senior Bowl. The San Francisco 49ers made him the 11th pick of the draft.
And, of course, he was the defensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL. As a rookie, he was coached by Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Singletary, who said, “I’ve already coached two of the greatest linebackers, one who has already proven to be one of the greatest (Ray Lewis) and one who will be (Patrick Willis).”
Willis a first team All-Pro six times in an eight-year NFL career and played in seven Pro Bowls. His retirement announcement in 2015, at the age of 30, was stunning. He left a $22 million contract on the table. When you hit as hard as Willis hit, there are aches and pains that come with it. Like running back greats Jim Brown, who retired at 29, and Barry Sanders, who retired at 30, Willis retired with his health intact. He earned nearly $50 million as a pro. How much money does one guy need?
He has his health, plenty of money and a spot in Canton, Ohio, as one of the greatest linebackers to ever play the game.
Editor’s note: This list will be updated throughout the legislative session. It was last updated on Feb. 9.
Somewhere around 3,000 bills are expected to be filed for the 2024 session of the Mississippi Legislature. Likely only a third or so will become law. The deadline for introducing general bills and constitutional amendments is Feb. 19. Taxing and spending bills face later deadlines, with the session scheduled to end on May 5.
Mississippi health care — including the intertwined crises of hundreds of thousands of uninsured people and hospitals facing financial disaster — is front and center with lawmakers this year.
Here are some bills filed to date to address health care issues.
Scope of practice, facilities
Senate Bill 2064, authored by Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, would repeal the state’s certificate of need law. CON laws require health care providers to get permission from the state before adding or expanding some healthcare facilities or services. Proponents, including many hospital leaders, say they help control costs, ensure quality of care and availability of services such as emergency rooms. Opponents, including Gov. Tate Reeves, say they stifle free-market competition.
Senate Bill 2140, authored by Sen. J. Walter Michel, R-Ridgeland, would streamline “prior authorization,” the process by which insurance companies decide which medications and procedures are covered for consumers. It already passed unanimously in the Senate, and with a few revisions, also passed unanimously in the House. It will now go back to the Senate for approval of the revisions. But a similar prior authorization bill passed the Legislature last year, only to be vetoed by Gov. Reeves.
Senate Bill 2080, authored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, seeks to introduce the state’s first licensed midwifery program. As it stands, anyone can practice midwifery in Mississippi, but those who want certification have to go out of state — meaning Mississippi, a state riddled with health care deserts and the highest infant and maternal mortality rates, loses out on provider care.
Senate Bill 2079, authored by Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, would abolish nurse practitioner collaboration agreements. These agreements are financial contracts whereby NPs who want to practice in Mississippi must pay a physician with whom they are “in collaboration” with. These contracts can be expensive and sometimes have distance limitations, meaning rural areas lose out on care because NPs aren’t allowed to practice too far from their collaborating physicians — who are mostly based in urban areas.
House Bill 539, authored by Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, introduces presumptive eligibility for pregnant women. It passed the full House 117-5 last week and now advances to the Senate. If passed, it would allow low-income pregnant women to receive timely prenatal care while they wait for their Medicaid application to be officially approved — which can sometimes take months. Senate Medicaid Chair Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, has voiced his support of the policy, calling it a “serious issue for a lot of us on this side.”
Lawmakers are expected to address Medicaid expansion to cover the working poor, and several bills have already been filed, but the bills that will actually be used and debated are likely still forthcoming.
Reproductive health and rights
House Bill 32, authored by Rep. Becky Currie, R-Brookhaven, would direct the Mississippi State Department of Health to have a nurse practitioner available at each county health department at least one day a week to provide and prescribe contraception. The bill would also mandate that contraception be made affordable on a sliding scale, and that it be made available to minors who are parents, married, have the permission of their parent or legal guardian, or have been referred for the service by another physician, nurse practitioner, clergyman, family planning clinic, school or institution of higher learning, or any state agency.
Senate Bill 2163, by Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, would establish legal protections and rights for the parents of children born via surrogacy and in vitro fertilization.
Mental health
House Bill 336, by Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, would require counties to pay for psychiatric treatment for an indigent resident who has been ordered into treatment by a judge through the civil commitment process, if no publicly funded bed is available. It would cap the cost to the county at no more than the Medicaid reimbursement rate, and it would prohibit counties from jailing going through the commitment process someone solely because they lack a payor source.
House Bill 415, by Rep. Kevin Felsher, R-Biloxi, would prohibit counties from jailing someone without criminal charges while they go through the civil commitment process unless they are awaiting transportation to a medical facility and it is necessary for protective custody. Any such jail detentions would be limited to 72 hours.
House Bill 990, by Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, would create a tax on vape products and use the revenue to increase patient housing at the community mental health centers and to create a fund for the Department of Mental Health’s 988 Crisis Response System.
House Bill 1044, by Rep. Sam Creekmore, R-New Albany, would provide for the establishment and licensure of long-term adult supportive residential facilities for people with mental illness, and would direct Medicaid to cover the services at such facilities.
Delta State University in Cleveland is seeking a new dean to lead the college of arts and sciences nearly three months after the faculty senate called for the current dean’s resignation.
The administration revealed the search for a new dean, along with five other executive-level positions, near the end of a town hall last week that was largely dedicated to the financial position of the regional college in the Mississippi Delta.
But it is unclear what, if any, connection the search has to the faculty senate’s unusual no-confidence vote in November that called on the current dean, Ellen Green, to resign, citing a failure to advocate for faculty and an ineffectiveness in handling tenure and promotion cases. Many faculty can’t remember the last time the faculty senate writ-large took such a vote.
When the president, Daniel Ennis, was asked during the town hall for an update on the administration’s response to the no-confidence vote, he refused to answer the question.
“I’m not going to make any response to that at this forum,” Ennis said. “As to when — I don’t have a good answer for that. Just gonna step aside on that question.”
A few minutes later, a different question led Ennis to share that a search for a new dean would be underway. It was also shared that the university had selected a headhunting firm, Coleman Lew Canny Bowen, after seeking requests-for-proposals last fall.
Green, a biology professor, was appointed interim dean in 2020. Her predecessor came to Delta State following a national search. Green is still listed as dean on Delta State’s website and did not return inquiries seeking comment.
Christy Riddle, a university spokesperson, did not answer questions from Mississippi Today about a timeline for the search or when Delta State hopes to have a new dean in place, writing in an email that “we are unable to comment on personnel matters.”
In response to questions about the search firm, Riddle wrote, “this information will be available after the (Institutions of Higher Learning) Board takes action at its next meeting.” But at the town hall, Ennis said he had taken foundation funds allocated to him to hire a search firm to help “with multiple executive searches.”
Christopher Jurgenson, the faculty senate president and a biochemistry professor, said the town hall was the first he’d heard of the search for a new dean. He said he had not talked to the administration about the no-confidence vote since it passed in November.
“What we do know is the resolution passed, and we found that we were getting a new dean,” Jurgenson said. “What transpired between those two things, how they were connected, I don’t really know.”
Jurgenson added he believes the administration has to be careful about what it says due to at least two employment lawsuits the cash-strapped university has recently faced. In one of those cases settled last year, an Iranian former art professor said that Green locked him in his office until he agreed to resign after his department chair, who is Turkish, allegedly sought to replace him with a fellow Turk.
Still, Jurgenson said this administration has been more collegial with faculty than prior ones. He noted he’s received no blowback on the no-confidence vote, something some faculty senators were worried about.
“Something I want to emphasize is just to remind everybody, what we’re doing here matters, people are listening and don’t give up,” Jurgenson said.
Top leaders in the Mississippi House are in the early stages of crafting a pathway for some people convicted of disenfranchising felonies to have their voting rights restored — the first such effort at the Capitol in more than a decade.
Speaker Jason White, a Republican from West, told Mississippi Today that he has tasked Constitution Committee Chairman Price Wallace and Judiciary B Committee Chairman Kevin Horan with proposing legislation that would restore suffrage for Mississippians convicted of certain felonies.
“I’ve talked to some members in the House, and I haven’t gotten any negative response,” said Wallace, a Republican from Mendenhall.
The two committee leaders at this stage have different ideas about which types of disqualifying felonies shouldn’t be subject to the lifetime voting ban. But both agree that suffrage should be restored only after someone has completed the terms of their sentence.
Wallace said he was open to restoring suffrage for people convicted of nearly all nonviolent crimes. Horan, a Republican from Grenada, said he also wants to explore restoring suffrage to people convicted of some lower-level violent crimes, with the exception of people convicted of embezzling public money.
“I don’t see why we wouldn’t at least look into it,” Horan said. “But I haven’t really thought that much about it at this stage.”
Under the Mississippi Constitution, people convicted of any of 10 felonies — including perjury, arson and bigamy — lose their voting rights for life. A 2009 opinion from the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office expanded the list of disenfranchising felonies to 22.
About 37,900 names are on the Secretary of State’s voter disenfranchisement list as of Jan. 29. The list, provided to Mississippi Today through a public records request, goes back to 1992 for felony convictions in state court. That number, however, may not be wholly accurate because no state agency tracks people once they are struck for the voter rolls. Studies commissioned by civil rights organizations in 2018 estimated between 44,000 and 50,000 Mississippians were disenfranchised.
For someone to have their suffrage restored, a lawmaker has to introduce a bill on their behalf, and two-thirds of lawmakers in both legislative chambers must agree to it. A person can also seek a gubernatorial pardon, though no executive pardon has been handed down since Gov. Haley Barbour’s final days in office in 2011.
When the drafters of Mississippi’s 1890 Constitution created a new framework for Mississippi’s government, their stated intent was to reinstitute white supremacy following Reconstruction and bar Black citizens from holding office.
One way to accomplish that goal was to impose a lifetime voting ban on people convicted of certain crimes. The framers included crimes they believed African Americans were more likely to commit.
“There is no use to equivocate or lie about the matter … Mississippi’s constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the n—– from politics,” Mississippi Gov. James K. Vardaman said at the time.
Civil rights organizations have filed two federal lawsuits over the constitutional provisions.
One group argued the list of disenfranchising crimes violated the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment, but federal courts rejected that argument.
Another group argued the lifetime voting ban violates the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. A panel of judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit initially agreed with the plaintiffs, but the full circuit is reconsidering the panel’s ruling. That case is still pending, and attorneys have indicated the case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court regardless of the outcome at the appellate level.
Legislative efforts to reform the disenfranchisement law face an uphill battle. Changes to the state constitution bypass the governor, but they require approval by two-thirds of the members of both the House and Senate — the highest legislative threshold requirement on the books. Then, if lawmakers pass the measure, a majority of voters must approve the change on a statewide ballot.
Rep. Kabir Karriem, a Democrat from Columbus, has filed numerous bills over several years to grant people convicted of disenfranchising felonies a way to regain their voting rights, but his legislation has never gained serious traction in the Legislature. He told Mississippi Today on Wednesday that he is working with Horan and Wallace on the legislation.
“I’m encouraged by it, and it has the potential to impact many Mississippians,” Karriem said.
While numerous Democrats for years have filed proposals to change the process for people convicted of disenfranchising crimes to regain their voting rights, conservative lawmakers in recent years have also started to support the policy.
Republican Rep. Tracy Arnold of Booneville said he plans to introduce a resolution this year to change the state constitution to create a way for some convicted felons to have their suffrage restored.
Arnold, an ordained minister, said Christian principles of forgiveness influenced his decision to advocate for restoring voting rights to people who have completed their prison sentence.
“Once you’ve paid your debt to society, that should trigger a restoration of your rights,” Arnold said. “To me, real forgiveness is restoration.”
Former House Judiciary B Chairman Nick Bain, a Republican from Corinth, shepherded a proposal through the Legislature in 2022 that sought to clarify that people who have had a disenfranchising felony expunged from their criminal record would regain their voting rights. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves vetoed Bain’s proposal, and the Legislature did not override the veto.
The last time the Legislature substantively addressed felony suffrage was when the House overwhelmingly passed legislation in 2008 to restore voting rights to all Mississippians convicted of felonies, except for those convicted of murder or rape.
The 2008 legislation later died in the Senate, where Phil Bryant — who would later become governor and not pardon a single Mississippian convicted of any crime — presided as lieutenant governor.
The city of Lexington has dropped all charges against civil rights attorney Jill Collen Jefferson, who has filed lawsuit against it and its police department for allegedly abusing its Black residents.
Months after Lexington police arrested her, Holmes County Justice Court Judge Marcus Fisher convicted Jefferson in a bench trial of the misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, failure to comply and blocking a public roadway for filming a traffic stop.
She said the decision to drop those charges marks “the end of a challenging chapter characterized by an unjust arrest, fraudulent charges and a sham trial.”
In a statement, she said the experience “has unscored the critical importance of fighting against systemic injustice and advocating for accountability within our criminal justice system.”
Jefferson has filed two lawsuits on behalf of Black residents who accuse the Lexington police of mistreating them, and she complained about the force to the U.S. Department of Justice.
After her Jan. 31 trial, she claimed the outcome was unjust because the judge did not consider evidence presented during the trial, including an affidavit from a former Lexington police officer who had knowledge that Jefferson’s arrest was planned and targeted in response to her legal work.
Fisher had ordered her to pay $600 in fines, but with the charges dismissed, she will owe nothing.
About a week before Jefferson’s arrest, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke came to Lexington to hear concerns from residents and Jefferson about the local police department.
In November 2023, the DOJ launched an investigation into the city and Lexington police.
Jefferson was arrested June 10, 2023, while filming a traffic stop from her car on a public street. An officer asked for her identification, which she gave. He instructed her to get out of out of the car, which she refused. The officer pulled her out and arrested her, said Michael Carr, her attorney.
Jefferson spent the weekend in the Holmes County jail. Her attorney had reached Police Chief Charles Henderson, who agreed to release her without bond, but she refused to pay a $35 processing fee because she said her arrest was unlawful and because people in Lexington can’t afford to pay the fee.
About a year earlier, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting broke the story about then police Chief Sam Dobbins, who is white, bragging on an audio recording about killing 13 people in the line of duty, including how he shot one Black man 119 times.
A day later, the Lexington City Council fired Dobbins, and Henderson, who is Black, became chief. Jefferson and other residents said the harassment of Black residents has continued.
In response, Jefferson’s legal nonprofit, JULIAN, filed a lawsuit alleging unconstitutional treatment by Lexington police. Jefferson asked for a temporary restraining order, but afederal judge declined. The lawsuit is still active.
In January, JULIAN filed another suit in federal court against the police department and city for continued harassment of its Black residents. It includes over 20 plaintiffs and accounts from former Lexington officers.
Other attorneys and legal groups are also pursuing action against Lexington.
The ACLU of Mississippi filed a lawsuit in federal court against Lexington police and city officials in August 2023 on behalf of a former Jackson Public Schools resource officer over his unlawful arrest and jailing after attending a New Year’s Eve celebration.
Another civil rights attorney, Malik Shabazz, who is representing two Black men who were beaten by a group of Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and a local police officer in 2023, traveled to Lexington in August 2022 to call for an investigation into the Lexington police and charges for Dobbins.
It was a bad weekend to be a Mississippi college basketball fan, and it’s a bad week to be an NFL fan, if you hate Taylor Swift, as apparently many do.
The House passed a bill that would no longer prohibit Mississippi’s small towns from selling liquor and wine — a Prohibition-era carryover still enforced for municipalities in many “dry” counties.
The measure, which passed the House on Tuesday by a vote of 93-21, which would automatically legalize the sale and manufacture of wine and liquor in all municipalities in the state that have 5,000 or fewer residents. Currently, many of those small municipalities cannot sell liquor or wine at all.
House State Affairs Chairman Hank Zuber III, a Republican from Ocean Springs, said the law is intended to support tourism in smaller areas and add some level of conformity to the state’s hodgepodge network of alcohol laws.
“This is just a matter of bringing Mississippi into the 21st century,” Zuber said on Tuesday.
The majority of Mississippi’s 82 counties, commonly called “wet” counties, allow liquor and wine sales. But approximately 30 counties in the state do not allow hard liquor sales and are typically referred to as “dry” counties. Some large cities inside those dry counties, however, do allow spirit and wine sales, leading to the nickname of “moist” counties.
Municipalities with more than 5,000 residents inside of dry counties already have the option to conduct a local election to allow liquor and wine sales.
The House proposal would not change the restrictions in dry counties, but it would make municipalities with 5,000 or fewer residents inside the dry counties wet.
If the measure becomes law, it would allow the small towns to conduct a referendum to become dry again. To trigger a local election, a total of 1,500 residents or 20% of the citizens — whichever is less — must sign a petition.
The state’s byzantine and sometimes contradicting alcohol laws date back to the early 19th century. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment that instituted Prohibition.
During Mississippi’s Prohibition period, the state’s policies became so hypocritical that it once established a State Tax Collector office, where the main goal of the agency was to collect a “black market” tax on illegal whiskey.
In 1966, Mississippi became the last state to repeal its statewide Prohibition law and pass the current law allowing counties to decide for themselves whether they wanted to legalize liquor sales.
The distribution of alcohol in Mississippi is now state-controlled. The Mississippi Department of Alcohol Beverage Control imports, stores and sells millions of cases of spirits and wines each year.
The House measure now heads to a Senate committee for consideration. If passed into law, the bill would take effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Attorneys for public school advocates said in oral arguments Tuesday before the Mississippi Supreme Court that the state constitutional provision that prevents public funds from going to private schools is “ironclad.”
Attorneys Rob McDuff and Will Bardwell, representing Parents for Public Schools, said at the time of the writing of the 1890 Mississippi Constitution that public funds were being spent on private schools and the framers of the constitution sought to prevent that from occurring. Section 208 of the constitution says, in part, that public funds shall not be provided to any school “not conducted as a free school.”
The Parents for Public Schools organization filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of a $10 million state legislative appropriation made to the Midsouth Association of Independents Schools.
“Section 208 expresses a simple principle: public money shall go to public schools,” McDuff told a three-justice panel of the nine-member Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Only justices Leslie King of the Central District, Robert Chamberlin of the Northern District and David Ishee of the Southern District heard the oral arguments, though it is possible that all nine justices will rule on the issue. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court by state Attorney General Lynn Fitch after Hinds County Chancellor Crystal Wise Mastin ruled the Legislature’s action was unconstitutional.
Justin Matheny of the Attorney General’s Office argued Tuesday that it was OK for the Legislature to appropriate the money to the state’s private schools for infrastructure repairs because the funds were not state money but were part of the more than $1 billion in federal funds provided to the state for COVID-19 relief.
Additionally, Matheny pointed out the funds were not directly appropriated to the private schools by the Legislature, but to the state Department of Finance and Administration with the instruction to send the money to the private schools in the form of grants. King of the Central District, who presided over the three-justice panel, told Matheny that it was the custom of the Legislature to appropriate most funds to state agencies with instructions to provide the money to the entity that the Legislature intended to receive the funds.
Matheny also argued that the Parents for Public Schools was not directly harmed by the Legislature’s action so the advocacy group did not have standing to bring the case. Bardwell argued that the group as taxpayers, including taxpaying parents of public school students, did have standing.
King asked Matheny if he was arguing that sometimes there is no one with standing to file a lawsuit challenging a legislative action as unconstitutional.
Matheny replied, “It is possible and it should not bother anyone” since no one was harmed by the legislative action. He said the appropriated money was not state funds reserved for public schools, so no one was harmed.
Chamberlin then posed a hypothetical to McDuff: If Congress earmarked money specifically for private schools, would the Mississippi Legislature be able to appropriate it to the private schools then? McDuff replied the Legislature would not under Section 208 of the state constitution. Of course, under Chamberlin’s hypothetical, Congress could bypass the Legislature and send money directly to the private schools just as it did to public schools as part of some of the COVID-19 relief funds.
The money the Legislature appropriated to the private schools in 2022 was part of a pot of federal discretionary funds that were sent to the states to be used in numerous areas, including on infrastructure improvements. But since the money was public, Bardwell and McDuff argued, in Mississippi it could not go to private schools.
Buck Dougherty of the Liberty Justice Center argued that the private schools should be allowed to intervene in the case. The private schools were not allowed to intervene in the lower Hinds County Chancery Court. Martin, the judge in the original case, ruled that the request to intervene was made too late.
In addition, Dougherty argued that Section 208 of the state constitution violates the U.S. Constitution. He said that constitutional provisions in various states prohibiting public money from going to private religious schools have been ruled as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
But Bardwell pointed out that the issue is not public money going to religious schools.
He said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that “the state is not obligated to fund private schools.” But if a state is providing funds to a private school, it cannot discriminate against religious schools. The key difference, Bardwell said, is that Mississippi Constitution’s Section 208 prohibited public funds from going to all private schools.
Numerous people on both sides of the issue attended the Tuesday oral arguments in downtown Jackson.
