Saunders et al. v. Randolph et al.

H.B. 1020 is radical legislation that unconstitutionally packs the Hinds County Circuit Court and a sweeping effort to disempower voters in majority-Black Hinds County, Mississippi, from choosing their own local judges. The MacArthur Justice Center is fighting alongside communities, like Hinds County, whose state legislators are unconstitutionally robbing them of political self-determination, particularly within the criminal legal system.

House Bill 1020, a bill sponsored by Rep. Trey Lamar and signed into law by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves in April 2023, requires that Chief Justice Michael K. Randolph of the Mississippi Supreme Court appoint four judges to the Hinds County Circuit Court, despite the state constitution’s requirement that circuit judges “shall be elected.” While elected judges across the state must reside where they were elected, H.B. 1020 allows for judges appointed by Chief Justice Randolph to reside outside of Hinds County – a constituency that is 74% Black.

H.B. 1020 also established the Capitol Complex Improvement District (CCID) court – the only of its kind in the state – will have authority over preliminary matters in felony criminal cases and be authorized to enforce misdemeanor offenses and certain ordinances in Jackson, Mississippi, which is in Hinds County. While people who commit misdemeanor offenses in the rest of the state face possible incarceration in local county jails, H.B. 1020 gives the judge in the new CCID court authority to send people who commit misdemeanor offenses within the boundaries of the CCID to Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, one of Mississippi’s notoriously unsafe state prisons.

The Mississippi Constitution permits the legislature to create new courts but requires that they be “inferior” to courts expressly identified in the constitution. Despite the CCID court not being an inferior court as permitted by the state constitution, H.B. 1020 does not provide any right to appeal the decisions of the court to any higher court. The CCID court therefore lacks legal authority to carry out any of the functions provided for under H.B. 1020.

Before its passage, the bill was vehemently protested by Jackson residents, community organizers, and political figures across the state, who said the bill ignored, disenfranchised, and disempowered thousands of Black Jacksonians.

The MacArthur Justice Center (MJC), alongside the Mississippi Center for Justice (MCJ), the ACLU of Mississippi (ACLU-MS), and the Legal Defense & Educational Fund (LDF), filed a lawsuit on behalf of Jackson residents who seek to block the implementation of H.B. 1020 because it violates the Mississippi Constitution.

UPDATE

The Mississippi Supreme Court ruled that the judicial appointments required by H.B. 1020 are unconstitutional because Mississippi’s constitution expressly states that circuit court judges “shall be elected by the people.”

The Court also ruled that decisions of the new CCID court established under H.B. 1020 are appealable despite the fact that H.B. 1020 does not mention any such right. Contrary to the plaintiffs’ position in their challenge, the Court recognized a narrow means to appoint temporary judges under an older Mississippi law upon an “emergency or overcrowded docket.”

But the court expressly found that judges appointed under that provision may serve only until the emergency or overcrowded docket is resolved.