By Christopher Young,
Contributing Writer,
U.S. District Court Judge Henry Wingate had promised previously that he would render a ruling by the end of the year on House Bill 1020, which was signed into law by the Mississippi Governor on April 21, 2023; and immediately challenged by the NAACP and multiple other plaintiffs – and he did just that on the evening of December 31, 2023.
“In this court’s eye, Plantiffs have failed adequately to plead injury – in fact – and therefore failed to establish standing altogether. Okpalobi v. Foster, 244 F.3d 405, 425 (5th Cir. 2001) (en banc) (finding that “if any one of the three elements (required for standing) is absent, plaintiffs have no standing in federal court.”). This court, accordingly, need not address the merits and requirements regarding Plaintiffs’ motion for injunctive relief. That motion (Docket no. 110), therefore, is DENIED. Seeking to salvage various claims, especially their claims against the Chief Justice, Plaintiffs filed a motion to amend their complaint (Docket no. 80). This court, unpersuaded by any arguments in favor of such, hereby DENIES that motion to amend, “read a portion of Judge Wingate’s 12-page ruling in Case 3:23 – cv – 00272 – HTW – LGI Document 135.
Yet once again, immediately, NAACP and the other plaintiffs, appealed Judge Wingate’s ruling to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and were granted temporary relief – “IT IS ORDERED that the motion for an injunction pending appeal is CARRIED WITH THE CASE. The alternative motion for a temporary administrative stay is GRANTED until noon Friday January 5, 2024. The district court is DIRECTED to issue a final appealable order by noon Wednesday January 3, 2024. Nothing in this order is to be construed as indicating any view on the merits of any issue.,” as reported by WLBT. Then on January 3, 2024, Judge Wingate held a status conference attempting to clear up confusion in response to plaintiff’s “Renewed Motion for Preliminary Injunction Pending Appeal,” and The Mississippi Link reading directly from his Order, Wingate denied the motion.
And so, HB1020 is not settled, just yet anyway. Mostly white Republican legislators, not residing in Hinds County – but from all over the state – purport to address Jackson’s crime problem by installing a white-led police force to ride herd in a predominantly Black city and install an additional court system with judges and prosecutors appointed by the White Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Judge and the White Mississippi Attorney General.
Now the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which as noted previously by The Mississippi Link newspaper, is a court made up of 74+% White judges, will weigh in. That’s where we are.
If you are one of those asking where else this is going on in the State of Mississippi, the answer is nowhere. This treatment is reserved for Jackson and Jackson only. If you are one of those asking if the White republican legislators in Mississippi ever fulsomely attempted to help Jackson with any of its challenges, to offer assistance, or to seek dialogue – the answer is no. They just did what they wanted to do. Everything in Mississippi is about race, and HB1020 is no exception – White Supremacy in action.
The NAACP has taken a stand for the interests and rights of oppressed people for 115 years and counting. The NAACP is a multi-racial organization of which this writer is a member. Its mission in the 21st century is “to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination,” per their website.
Thurgood Marshall founded the Legal Defense Fund in 1940 and served as its first director-counsel. He was the architect of the legal strategy that ended the country’s official policy of segregation and was the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice. He served as Associate Justice from 1967-1991 after being nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Three years before his retirement from the highest court in the land, Justice Marshall spoke to the American Bar Association in Washington, D.C. This is part of what he shared about racism in America on August 8, 1988 – nearly 36 years ago: “Racism is broader and stronger than before. We’re not gaining ground, we might be losing…I don’t care about the Constitution alone, or the Declaration of Independence, or all of the books together – it’s not that important. What is important is a goal, toward which you are moving. A goal that is a basis of true democracy, which is over and above the law. It is something that won’t happen, but you must pray for it and work for it. And that goal is very simple.
“That goal is that if a child, a Negro child is born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi or any other state like that – born to the dumbest poorest sharecropper – is by merely drawing its first breath in a democracy, there and without any more, is born with the exact same rights as a similar child, born to a White parent of the wealthiest person in the United States. No, it’s not true. Of course, it’s not true. It never will be true. But I challenge anybody to take a position that that is not the goal that we should be shooting for. And stop talking about how far we have come and start talking about how close we are,” per C-Span.org.
Are his words still not true today? Do the residents in a predominantly Black city have the exact same rights as others? Do they have the right to their own policing via an elected mayor? Do they have the right to elect their own judges? Every other city in Mississippi does.
Be the first to comment