As redistricting continues to be a hot topic, another court ruling could impact the way political lines are drawn in Mississippi.
The U.S. Supreme Court reversed Monday a lower court’s ruling that forced several legislative districts in Mississippi to be redrawn last year over concerns Black voting power was being diluted.
The order from the high court was brief and did not provide much legal justification, noting the matter is being sent back to the lower courts “for further consideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais,” a landmark decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court that further limited the use of race when drawing voter maps. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter in the 8-1 vote.
In July 2024, a federal panel of judges tasked lawmakers with redrawing House districts in Chickasaw County and DeSoto County and Senate districts in the Hattiesburg area after 14 individuals and the NAACP sued. Lawmakers drew new majority-minority districts that were approved by the panel last May, resulting in special elections last November.
Democrats took advantage of the special elections, too, flipping two Senate seats and one House seat. The results broke up a Republican supermajority in the Senate, although Republicans maintained their supermajority in the House.
The Mississippi Attorney General’s Office had previously taken the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, or at least part of it, asking the high court to rule that private citizens cannot file litigation under the Voting Rights Act.
While the Callais decision has created a wave of states working to redraw congressional maps to favor their majority parties, Mississippi will not immediately redraw its congressional maps, per an announcement last week by Gov. Tate Reeves. But Reeves did note that he would like to see the state’s congressional, legislative, and Supreme Court maps reconfigured in favor of Republicans before the 2027 elections.