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Mississippi is just hours from banning abortion in most instances, but an eleventh-hour lawsuit before a special state judge could at least temporarily delay the “trigger law” from going into effect.

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that abortion is a protected right under the state Constitution and that right cannot be taken away unless the state’s high court reverses itself, attorneys representing the state’s only abortion clinic told a chancery judge on Tuesday.

Based on that 1998 ruling, Jackson attorney Rob McDuff asked Chancery Judge Debbra Halford of Franklin County to issue an injunction preventing laws that would ban most abortions in Mississippi from taking effect. McDuff and Hillary Schneller, senior staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, represented Jackson Women’s Health Organization in the lawsuit.

“The primary issue before you is whether the decision of the Mississippi Supreme Court is binding and we clearly believe it is,” McDuff said Tuesday morning during a hearing in the Hinds County Chancery Court Building that lasted about 45 minutes.

READ MORE: Hearing set in Mississippi lawsuit trying to prevent abortion ban

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, arguing on behalf of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, told Halford that the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling was no longer binding law because of the recent landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the Roe v. Wade decision and the Casey v. Planned Parenthood decision that enshrined in the U.S. Constitution the right to an abortion.

“They depend on Roe and Casey. There is no Roe and Casey anymore. And there is no Fordice,” Stewart said referring to the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling titled Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Kirk Fordice.

After the hearing, Halford said she would soon issue a decision regarding whether to grant the temporary restraining order allowing abortions to continue to be performed in Mississippi. But at this time, she will not rule on the actual merits of the case.

It is likely her decision will be appealed by the losing side to the state Supreme Court.

As the issue is litigated, though, the clock is ticking on abortion rights in Mississippi. A trigger law would take effect on Thursday banning all abortions in the state except in cases where it is determined the life of the mother is at risk or in cases where there is rape reported to law enforcement. Another Mississippi law that would take effect based on the U.S. Supreme Court ruling would ban all abortion after six weeks except in cases of medical emergencies.

But on Tuesday in the hearing attended by about 50 spectators with a handful of protesters outside the courthouse, McDuff told the chancery judge that the state Supreme Court ruling would supersede the laws and she did not have the authority to ignore Mississippi’s highest court.

He conceded the current Supreme Court could reverse its 1998 ruling.

Stewart did not try to argue that the 1998 ruling did not say abortion was a right under the state Constitution. Instead, he argued that the majority in 1998 ruled that abortion was a right under the state Constitution to be in alignment with the federal Supreme Court in the Roe v. Wade decision.

But McDuff said nowhere in the ruling was any reference made to the state Supreme Court decision being contingent on the Roe v. Wade decision. He said in other rulings, the state Supreme Court had ruled that the rights granted in the Mississippi Constitution did not “inflate or deflate like a balloon” based on the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

McDuff pointed out to the court that abortion had been legal for a vast majority of Mississippi’s statehood and that the judge should block the enactment of the laws banning abortion to give the Mississippi Supreme Court time to rule on the issue.

Stewart argued that it would not be a hardship to allow the laws to go into effect. He said programs had been put in place, such as pregnancy counseling programs, to help mothers who might otherwise had wanted to have an abortion.

Halford is hearing the case because all four Hinds County chancery judges recused themselves.

READ MORE: Supreme Court could assure abortion ban in Mississippi, or people could vote

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Mississippi Today political reporters Geoff Pender and Bobby Harrison discuss the results of the U.S. House party primary runoff elections where an unusual event occurred and also discuss some surprising twists in the aftermath of the landmark reversal of Roe. v. Wade.

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In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with award-winning author W. Ralph Eubanks to talk about his book, A Place Like Mississippi. A Place Like Mississippi takes readers on a complete tour of the real and imagined landscapes that have inspired generations of authors.

Eubanks is also the author of two other books: Ever Is a Long Time: A Journey Into Mississippi’s Dark Past (Basic Books) and The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South (HarperCollins) and recently received the Nonfiction award for A Place Like Mississippi: A Journey Through a Real and Imagined Literary Landscape by the The Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters.

Eubanks talks about teaching other writers to learn their voice and how those voices have helped lift Mississippi’s literary tradition.

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For abortion to be banned in Mississippi, a 1998 Supreme Court ruling — that “abortion is protected” under the state Constitution — must be reversed.

The most obvious way for that reversal to occur is for the same Mississippi Supreme Court, but with different judges than in 1998, to write a new decision saying abortion is not a protected right under the state Constitution.

The state Supreme Court most likely will have a chance to make that reversal thanks to a lawsuit filed claiming a Mississippi trigger law banning most abortions upon the repeal of Roe v. Wade cannot go into effect because of the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling. A very conservative Supreme Court can simply reverse that 1998 decision and the trigger law can go into effect banning most abortions in the state.

But another way to reverse that 1998 decision is to let the people vote.

Gov. Tate Reeves could call a special session of the Mississippi Legislature for the purpose of passing a constitutional resolution. That resolution — presumably to ban abortion or most abortions in Mississippi — would then go before the voters. If the voters approved it, presto — abortion would be banned.

The election could take place on Nov. 8 — the date of the already scheduled general election. But if legislators wanted, they could schedule a special election earlier to vote on the constitutional amendment to ban abortions. In the past, legislators have scheduled votes on constitutional amendments for dates other than the date of the regularly scheduled general election.

Until the 1998 Pro-Choice Mississippi v. Fordice is overturned either by a new Supreme Court ruling or by the vote of the people, it is difficult to see a path for the trigger law to take effect in the state. It is the same principle that applied nationally in the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision — abortion could not be banned until the U.S. Supreme Court wrote a new decision reversing the Roe decision that said abortion rights were protected by the federal Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court, of course, reversed Roe in late June in a Mississippi case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dobbs ruling did not and could not reverse what the state Supreme Court said in 1998 about the right to an abortion being found in the Mississippi Constitution.

“We find that the state constitutional right to privacy includes an implied right to choose whether or not to have an abortion,” the late Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Michael Sullivan wrote for the majority in 1998.

Sullivan further wrote that when the Mississippi Constitution was written in 1890, “abortion was legal until quickening (until fetus movement) some four to five months into pregnancy.”

There has been only one statewide vote involving abortion, which occurred in 2011 on what was known as the “personhood amendment.” The proposal would have defined as a person “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent thereof.”

The ballot initiative process, where sponsors gather signatures to place issues before voters, was used for the personhood amendment. It was soundly defeated 58% to 42% by voters even though most of the state’s politicians, including Phil Bryant who was elected governor that year, supported it. Had it passed, the proposal would have been placed in the state Constitution.

The personhood proposal might have gone steps further on banning abortions than most Mississippi voters wanted to go. Based on the personhood vote, even many conservative Mississippians favor exemptions from abortion bans for the life of the mother, for rape and for other reasons. But on the other hand, House Speaker Philip Gunn said recently he believes life begins at conception and did not appear to favor any exemptions.

Legislators could craft the constitutional ban as strict or with as many exceptions as they want and then let the people vote.

One of the primary arguments used for overturning Roe v. Wade was that courts should not decide the controversial issue.

Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court for Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office in the landmark Dobbs case, said, “The Constitution places its trust in the people. On hard issue after hard issue, the people make this country work. Abortion is a hard issue. It demands the best from all of us, not a judgment by just a few of us. When an issue affects everyone — and when the Constitution does not take sides on it — it belongs to the people.”

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It’s been nearly 70 years since Emmett Till was lynched in the Mississippi Delta, but his family has not given up on justice. 

Last week, a search team that includes Till family members Deborah and Teri Watts discovered the original, unserved arrest warrant for the only living accomplice to Till’s death in the basement of the Leflore County courthouse in Greenwood. 

Deborah Watts, Till’s cousin and founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, said uncovering the document is the result of the family’s perseverance and determination. 

“We never accepted (the) closing of this case by the authorities or gave up hope,” she said in a Thursday statement. “We have always pushed for full accountability of all those involved in Emmett’s murder who may still be alive.”

The uncovered warrant is for Carolyn Bryant Donham, listed as “Mrs. Roy Bryant,” and is dated Aug. 29, 1955, days after Till’s death. The document had been in the courthouse for 67 years.

She was formerly married to Roy Bryant, who with his half-brother, J.W. Milam, killed 14-year-old Till who was visiting family from Chicago. They kidnapped him after Donham wrongfully accused Till of grabbing her and making unwanted advances. 

Donham is now in her 80s and most recently lived in North Carolina. 

The Department of Justice reopened Till’s case several times in the past two decades, but no new charges were made. The two men tried for his murder in 1955 were acquitted by an all-white jury. 

For several years, family members, supporters and the foundation have called for justice for Till and for Donham to be held accountable. Finding the original warrant could make that happen, they say. 

The Till family sent certified copies of the warrant to local and federal law enforcement, according to the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. They are asking the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Mississippi Fourth District Attorney’s Office to consider the warrant new evidence, investigate and charge Donham as an accessory in Till’s death. 

The search team, which also includes foundation ambassador Melissa Earnest, family ambassador Khali Rasheed and filmmaker and justice advocate Keith Beauchamp, received access to the courthouse on June 21, according to the foundation.

The team went through boxes organized by decade, and Rasheed found a file folder containing the warrant, according to the foundation.The original warrant and file and a certified copy can be found at the Leflore County courthouse. 

Beauchamp was granted access in March for an initial search for the warrant, according to the foundation. A few months earlier, Earnest told Watts that the warrant may possibly be in Leflore County. 

Watts said the pursuit of justice is dedicated to and honors Till and other late family members: his mother, Mamie Till Mobley; cousin Simeon Wright, who was the last to see him alive; and great uncle Mose Wright, whose home Till stayed at before his death. 

Family members have been seeking justice since Till’s death, according to the foundation. His mother chose to have an open casket at his funeral to show the world what happened to Till, and she continued to fight for justice until her death in 2003. 

In March, Till’s family and supporters visited the Mississippi State Capitol and delivered a petition with over 300,000 signatures to the attorney general’s office calling for Donham to be charged. 

Family members founded the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, whose goal is to preserve the memory and legacy of Till and his mother’s hope for justice. The group hopes to create a legacy of hope by bridging the past, present and future through programs, according to the foundation’s website. 

In the petition, the foundation links Till’s death to modern killings of Black people, such as George Floyd in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, and Eric Garner in New York.

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Facing the specter of most abortions being prohibited in Mississippi on July 7, a special judge has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. Tuesday to hear arguments in a lawsuit attempting to prevent the ban from taking effect.

Chancellor Debbra Halford of Franklin County in the 4^th District in southwest Mississippi was appointed late Thursday by Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph to preside over the case after all four Hinds County chancery judges recused themselves.

Halford will hear arguments in a lawsuit filed by Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state’s only remaining abortion clinic, claiming a trigger law cannot go into effect banning abortions in the state because of a 1998 ruling by the Mississippi Supreme Court. That ruling stated that the Mississippi Constitution provides the right to an abortion. The Supreme Court ruling would be a precedent that would supersede state law banning abortions, the lawsuit argues.

Two laws are at issue in the lawsuit. They are:

• A trigger law that states abortions except in the case of the life of the mother being at risk or in the case of a law enforcement-reported rape would be banned when the national constitutional right to an abortion (Roe v. Wade) is overturned. Roe v. Wade was overturned late last month.
• A ban on abortions after six weeks that provides no exemptions except in the case of medical emergencies.

The lawsuit maintains allowing the laws to take effect “will infringe on the constitutionally protected right of Mississippians to abortion under the Mississippi Constitution” as recognized by the state Supreme Court in 1998.

The trigger law states that most abortions would be illegal in the state 10 days after the attorney general certified that Roe v. Wade had been overturned. Attorney General Lynn Fitch made that certification June 27, meaning, according to the Secretary of State’s office, that the ban would go into effect on July 7.

The Mississippi abortion fight is of particular note nationwide since it was Fitch’s office that argued successfully before the U.S. Supreme Court that Roe v. Wade should be overturned.

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The 90-day grace period that allowed Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi customers to receive in-network rates at University of Mississippi Medical Center despite the hospital being outside the insurer’s network expired on Friday, leaving patients with no options other than seeking their care elsewhere or taking on exorbitant out-of-pocket costs. 

UMMC, the state’s safety net hospital, went out of network with the state’s largest private insurer on April 1 due to disagreements over reimbursement rates and Blue Cross’ quality care plan. 

The two parties agreed to enter mediation proceedings in late April, and had agreed on a mediator, Walter Johnson, by May 9, but Mississippi Insurance Commissioner says both parties are being “unreasonable,” indicating they are nowhere close to a deal.

When Blue Cross and UMMC used the mediation process to settle their contract dispute in 2018, it only took around 10 days to strike a deal. 

On Friday, Chaney sent a letter to Blue Cross, informing him that the Mississippi Insurance Department will be conducting a targeted market conduct examination of the insurer to determine whether it is in compliance with the state’s network adequacy regulations. 

He also released a statement saying he has received many emails and calls from Mississippians caught in the middle of the dispute, and that he is disturbed by the impact the dispute is having on them.

“This is a stark reminder that the only ones impacted by the dispute are the consumers,” Chaney said in the statement. “As your Insurance Commissioner, I am doing everything I can to ensure that individuals continue to have access to the healthcare provider of their choice with minimal disruption.”

State law requires insurers to provide reasonable access to all types of care included in the insured’s coverage plan. The concern is that without UMMC in its network, BCBS is not meeting this requirement due to the litany of specialty services UMMC provides that can’t be found elsewhere in the state.

The areas of concern that Chaney signaled out in the letter are:

• The services provided at Blaire E. Batson Children’s Hospital
• Level IV Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
• Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Programs
• Children’s Cancer Care Program
• Sickle Cell Anemia Program
• Heart, Kidney, Liver and Pancreas Transplant Program
• UMMC’s relationship with Methodist Rehabilitation Center
• UMMC’s Satellite Facilities

Chaney said that MID is in the process of appointing an examiner to conduct the review. If the review finds that Blue Cross is violating network adequacy regulations, Chaney can revoke the authority of the insurer to operate in Mississippi, impose a fine of up to $5,000 per violation, or both. 

It will likely be months before the review is completed and its findings are made publicly available. The Department completed a similar review of United HealthCare on Nov. 10, 2017, and the final report wasn’t sent to the insurer until nearly four months later. 

UMMC spokesperson Marc Rolph declined to comment on the market conduct examination or confirm whether or not the hospital had renewed its contract with Chancellor Consulting Group, a California-based group that UMMC has been paying $50,000 per month since mid-September for help with its negotiation efforts. That contract expired Friday. 

Blue Cross did not respond to request for comment by the time of publication. Earlier this week, Cayla Mangrum, manager of corporate communications at Blue Cross, told Mississippi Today that they are prohibited from discussing mediation, though there is no legal requirement to not discuss the process. 

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INDIANOLA — U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told Black farm workers that his office would combat the racist wage and hiring practices by white farm owners during his first visit to the Mississippi Delta Thursday.

The Department of Labor head’s pledge to local workers comes after a Mississippi Today investigation uncovered a pattern of farm owners skirting federal regulations to underpay Black workers in addition to pushing them out of jobs in favor of foreign workers – mainly, white men from South Africa. 

“I can’t promise you today that things are going to change overnight,” Walsh told local farm workers. “But l can promise you that it will not be 10 years from now, it will not be five years from now… it will not be one year from now. When I get back to my office in D.C. … we are working on this.” 

Walsh met with seven men named in a lawsuit against Indianola’s Pitts Farms at the Mississippi Center for Justice office in Indianola. Also in attendance was U.S. Congressman Bennie Thompson. 

“What I heard today in this meeting was discrimination. What I heard today in this meeting was racism,” Walsh said. “I don’t know where the senators of the state are. I don’t know where the governor of the state (is), and I certainly don’t know where the congressional delegation in the state is because you have workers in this state that are being taken advantage of and discriminated against.”

The Mississippi Center for Justice, which offers free legal services, has filed two lawsuits that accuse farm owners of not only paying Black workers less than their white counterparts, but also pushing them out of their jobs. 

One of the attorneys, Sharkey County native Ty Pinkins, shared new details regarding alleged discrimination on Delta farms that had not previously been shared publicly. The examples mirrored the experiences many of the workers lived through during Jim Crow.

Pinkins said workers reported that while white South Africans were able to use indoor bathrooms, Black local workers were forced to relieve themselves outdoors. Pinkins shared another incident in which he said white South African workers were provided cold water while Black workers were told they needed to buy their own. 

Mississippi Today’s investigation – “Exploited” – found at least five Delta farms that paid their local workers, who are mostly Black, less money per hour than foreign workers who came to work in Mississippi on agriculture visas through the H-2A program.

Walsh said his office is examining the program so it can no longer be misused by farms – especially by farms in regions, like the Delta, with high rates of unemployment. The H-2A program is intended to fill gaps in the workforce where enough local workers are not available. 

“We’re going to make sure this program is run the way it’s supposed to run and that employers are actually doing their due diligence to make sure workers that worked (for farms) in previous seasons are offered their jobs back,” Walsh told Mississippi Today. 

The DOL’s Wage and Hour Division is responsible for investigating labor violations regarding pay and has regional offices across the country. In 2020 and 2021, Walsh said the division had 60 agricultural investigations that recovered $1 million in missing wages to workers. 

A Mississippi Today analysis of DOL data found that of the roughly 400 Mississippi farms  investigated over 15 years, 81% were found to have violated wage regulations. That is about 10% higher than the national rate. 

“I’m no fool,” Walsh added. “I know that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Audrey Hall, the director of the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division in Jackson, said her agents are currently investigating several Delta farms though she declined to specify a number. She also said her office hired a new agent based in Greenwood. 

“At a state level we don’t have a Mississippi Department of Labor,” Thompson, the congressman, told the gathered crowd of Delta leaders. “That means if not for the federal government, these gentlemen we have here today would not have anyone to complain to.” 

Thompson thanked Walsh for coming to Mississippi, but also asked for follow through on labor policies to protect Black farm workers. 

Mississippi Today’s investigation found that while the DOL did audit Pitts Farms and others that underpaid Black workers, the audits only spanned two-year time frames. That means they did not cover the full span of time the farms were using H-2A workers. 

Pinkins and others have called for that standard two-year scope to be expanded. In addition, Pinkins and the Mississippi Center for Justice want broader audits done across the Delta to fully capture the extent of racist wage and hiring practices. 

Among the seven Pitts Farms workers at Thursday’s event were Andrew Johnson, brothers Richard and Gregory Strong, and Wesley Reed, all of whom were featured in Mississippi Today’s investigation. All seven men spoke one-on-one with Walsh Thursday morning. 

“It’s June 30, 2022, and this conversation I had in that room a minute ago could have been the same conversation that had happened 50 years ago,” Walsh said following their talk. 

Walsh continued his Mississippi visit by attending a roundtable discussion at Jackson State University. There, he met with Black women leading the state’s union and organizing efforts. 

Hall, the local DOL director, made a few comments before Walsh joined the panel. 

“Sec. Walsh has heard the cry of workers in Mississippi,” she said. 

The room applauded. 

Editor’s note: The Mississippi Center For Justice President and CEO Vangela Wade serves on Mississippi Today’s board of trustees.

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