By Jheri Hardaway
Staff Writer
DESOTO COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI - Black voters in DeSoto County, Mississippi, won a major legal victory after a federal judge rejected an attempt to eliminate a new, majority-Black judicial voting district ahead of the November election. The decision ensures that local Black residents will keep their fair chance to elect judges of their choice this fall. Earlier this year, Mississippi created a specific voting area known as a judicial subdistrict covering parts of DeSoto County, including Horn Lake and Southaven. Because DeSoto County is mostly white, Black candidates historically struggled to win countywide elections. Creating this majority-Black subdistrict was designed to give Black residents a fair voice on the local court bench.
A group led by local official Robert Foster filed a lawsuit (Robert Foster et al. v. The State of Mississippi) to block the new district, claiming it should not be used in the upcoming November election. After a four-day hearing, a federal judge denied the request to block the district for two main reasons. First, a lack of evidence: the plaintiffs failed to prove that the district caused the kind of harm needed to justify an emergency stop. Second, the "Purcell Principle" under a key U.S. Supreme Court rule warns judges not to change election districts or rules right before an election, as doing so confuses voters and disrupts the voting process.
“The court’s decision protects DeSoto County voters from this unfounded, last-minute attempt to take away their only meaningful opportunity to participate in judicial elections,” said Ming Cheung, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “Callais is not a license for politicians to disempower Black voters.”
The NAACP DeSoto County Branch stepped up to defend the district, teaming up with major legal advocates, including the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the ACLU of Mississippi. Civil rights lawyers explained that without this subdistrict, the voting power of Black residents who make up more than a third of DeSoto County would be completely washed out in countywide votes.
“In one of the fastest-growing counties in Mississippi, where black residents make up over 30% of the county and have largely driven the population increase, black DeSoto Countians deserve, like all voters a chance to elect candidates of their choice, including to the Circuit and Chancery Courts,” said Joshua Tom, legal director at ACLU of Mississippi.
While the broader legal case will continue to be argued in court over the coming months, this ruling guarantees that the majority-Black district will stay in place for the November election, protecting community representation when voters head to the polls.
