A former U.S. Attorney General is joining the NAACP Office of General Counsel in a lawsuit filed in federal court challenging two Mississippi statues that allegedly restrict the rights of the state's residents.
Eric Holder, Jr., senior counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Covington & Burling and a former U.S. Attorney General, is a member of the council team that filed the lawsuit, the NAACP reports in its April 21 announcement. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of the NAACP, the NAACP Mississippi State Conference, the Jackson Branch of the NAACP and a number of Jackson residents and civil rights activists, according to the news release.
"Lawmakers and Jackson residents have opposed both bills throughout the legislative session, citing outside attempts to increase policing without adequate training, silence dissent from Jackson residents, and strip residents of their voting power to elect judges and district attorneys who serve their interests," the NAACP states in the news release. "Taken together, the two bills represent a state takeover of Jackson, MS."
The first statute, S.B. 2343, "significantly expands" the Capitol Complex Improvement District to bring the entire predominantly Black city of Jackson under the control of the state-run Capitol Police, the release reports. S.B. 2343 also "significantly restricts" residents' ability to demonstrate or protest near state-owned properties by mandating written approval from Chief of the Capitol Police or the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety before "any event" takes place, according to the release. The bill has been signed by Gov. Tate Reeves (R).
The second bill, H.B. 1020, creates a new court with an unelected judge appointed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The new court will hear and determine all preliminary and criminal matters within the district, the release reports; the bill also "continues a court packing plan by appointing unelected Circuit Judges to the Seventh Circuit Court District in Hinds County."
The NAACP and its president have condemned the legislature’s actions as a move to infringe on the rights of Jackson’s predominantly Black residents.
NAACP President & CEO Derrick Johnson said that as the U.S. struggles with "broken" criminal justice systems and law enforcement, "passing legislation to increase policing, install undemocratically appointed judges, and infringe on the constitutional right to protest is simultaneously irresponsible and dangerous."
Johnson called the legislation "nothing new."
“The people of Jackson have been silenced and have faced years of discriminatory disinvestment and neglect from the state government which led to the major water crisis they are still dealing with to this day,” Johnson said in the news release
The NAACP encouraged the public to sign a petition asking the Mississippi state legislature and Gov. Reeves to protect the rights of Jackson residents to control their own resources, such as their water system; elect local judges; and ensure that residents' rights to continue the fight for safe drinking water will not be unconstitutionally silenced, according to the release.
Former AG Holder warned that the bills represent a "disturbing regression, rolling back decades of progress by stripping Jackson residents of their fundamental rights to democratically elect leaders, undermining the authority of those they have elected, and severely restricting their first amendment right to freedom of speech."
Holder said the Mississippi legislature "has proven that they are uninterested in upholding their sworn oath to protect the constitutional rights of their constituents, including the majority Black residents of Jackson."
"Once again," Holder said, "the responsibility has fallen on us - Black advocates and citizens - to hold state lawmakers accountable and fight back against this dangerous legislation."
Over the past year, the NAACP has worked closely with leaders and residents in Jackson to address the state’s gross mishandling of the water crisis and the history of inequities that caused it, the release states.
In September, the NAACP filed a Title VI Complaint for Investigation of the state’s discriminatory allotment of federal funds which resulted in a federal civil rights investigation. NAACP leaders continue to monitor the recovery process in collaboration with Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba and EPA Administrator Michael Regan to ensure that the community is aware of the progress and decisions made.