Lawmakers punt on Supreme Court redistricting, send immigration and education bills to governor ...Middle East

Two bills that would have allowed lawmakers to make Mississippi’s state Supreme Court districts fairer for Black voters died with a Monday night deadline, likely guaranteeing a federal judge will redraw the maps. 

While the House and Senate could not reach agreement on redrawing the three court districts, lawmakers on Tuesday debated and passed numerous other bills, hoping to end their 2026 regular session by Thursday. On Monday night, legislators had finished crafting a nearly $7.4-billion state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

READ MORE: Ed spending, special projects, PBMs and PERS: Lawmakers trying to wrap up 2026 session

The legislative wrangling over the state’s high court districts stems from U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock’s ruling last year that the districts in the northern, central and southern parts of the state violate the federal Voting Rights Act because they do not allow Black voters in one area a fair chance to elect a candidate of their choice. 

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins, a Republican from Pascagoula, said he believes that pending appeals related to the litigation and other court decisions involving redistricting played a role in the Legislature not redrawing the districts. 

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Mississippi, the Southern Poverty Law Center and private law firms on behalf of a group of Black Mississippians filed a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act against the state over the Supreme Court districts. 

Judge Aycock in Mississippi ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, but the state defendants asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn her decision. The state did not ask Aycock to pause lower-court proceedings while the appeal played out. 

The 5th Circuit, however, did pause its appellate proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its decision in a Louisiana case that many expect will gut much of the federal Voting Rights Act, and allow states more free rein in redistricting. 

If Mississippi lawmakers redraw the Mississippi Supreme Court districts, it would be the first time lawmakers have redrawn them since 1987. 

Current state law establishes three distinct Supreme Court districts, commonly referred to as the Northern, Central and Southern districts. Voters elect three judges from each of these districts to make up the nine-member court. 

The main district at issue in the case is the Central District, which comprises many parts of the majority-Black Delta and the majority-Black Jackson Metro area. Currently, two white justices, Kenny Griffis and Jenifer Branning, and one Black justice, Leslie King, represent the district. 

No Black person has ever been elected to the Mississippi Supreme Court, in the state with the highest percentage of Black residents, without first obtaining an interim appointment from the governor, and no Black person from either of the two other districts has ever served on the state’s high court. 

Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, told Mississippi Today in a statement that since a federal judge concluded that Supreme Court districts are shaped in a way that prevents Black voters from having a chance to elect a candidate of their choice, he is disappointed lawmakers chose not to remedy the map. 

“The federal court gave the Mississippi Legislature an opportunity to correct those discriminatory districts,” Dortch said. “Lawmakers chose not to. Their inaction is further evidence that this country still needs the protections of the Voting Rights Act.”

Aycock, in a December order, wrote that if the Legislature ends its session without adopting a new map, attorneys are required to provide a formal notice to her within seven days after the end of the session. After receiving notice, she will meet with attorneys to discuss the next steps in the litigation.

The 2026 legislative session, now set to draw to a close, has seen much infighting between Republican House and Senate leaders, and each chamber has killed many of the other’s major proposals. Some highlights from Tuesday’s deliberations:

Bills increasing state role in immigration sent to governor

Both chambers approved the negotiated version of bills on Tuesday that would increase Mississippi’s role in enforcing federal immigration law and force local law enforcement agencies to assist U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  

Republican lawmakers voted in near party-line votes to send SB 2114 and HB 538 to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves for his consideration. Republicans said the bills would enhance public safety and hold people accountable for violating immigration laws, while Democrats raised concerns that the federal government is responsible for enforcement and that the proposals would leave counties on the hook for paying to incarcerate undocumented immigrants. 

“We didn’t have enough money for infrastructure, we didn’t have enough money for childcare, but clearly we have enough money to hold people in jail or in prison because we are so concerned about so-called illegal aliens committing crimes in the state of Mississippi,” said Rep. Zakiya Summers, a Democrat from Jackson.

SB 2114 makes it a state misdemeanor to enter Mississippi from another country outside a legal port of entry, creating a minimum penalty of six months in prison. Illegal immigration is already a federal crime, but this measure also would make it a state-level crime in Mississippi. 

Under the measure, if undocumented people are also convicted of other crimes, they would have a minimum of two additional years added to their sentence. Rep. Joey Hood, a Republican from Ackerman, said the provision is necessary to deter undocumented people from committing crimes against Mississippians. 

Other provisions in the legislation include letting the Department of Public Safety collect data on undocumented immigrants living in Mississippi and directing state and local law enforcement agencies to enter into agreements with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out immigration raids. The state attorney general’s office could investigate agencies accused of failing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. 

HB 538 would ban “sanctuary” policies across Mississippi by preventing any state entities from adopting policies that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It would also require these entities to share information about individuals’ immigration status and to honor ICE detainer requests. It gives the state attorney general’s office the authority to investigate and sue agencies or officials who don’t comply with the measure. 

Last-minute negotiations on education policies

Though lawmakers appeared to reach an agreement on a teacher pay raise earlier this week, the legislation was sent for further negotiation Tuesday and changed to include a provision similar to the bill’s original language about school counselors. 

Amid the teacher pay raise debate, the original language in SB 2103 was stripped. The bill, authored by Republican Sen. Angela Burks Hill of Picayune, would have removed the requirement that Mississippi school counselors follow the American School Counselor Association’s code of ethics. 

The amendment added Tuesday would allow the Mississippi Department of Education to come up with an ethics policy for Mississippi school counselors to follow, according to Senate Education Chairman Dennis DeBar, a Republican from Leakesville.

“We trust the department to make good, sound judgment when they do so,” he said. 

Hill said there’s “no reason” that the state’s counselors should be required to commit to a national code of ethics from what she described as a “social justice activist organization.” The group represents about 43,000 school counselors, and focuses on providing professional development and supporting counselors, according to the organization’s website. 

Hill said her concerns are rooted in keeping parents in-the-know about their children. 

“Some of the platforms that the ASCA has are basically affirmation of gender confusion and fluidity, and they have a balance between students’ rights and parental rights,” she said. “So that’s a concern because if that’s going on, a parent needs to know it.”

While the latest version of the bill does not appear to require counselors to tell parents about changes with their students, policies in other states that require schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns have come under fire and brought litigation.

Both chambers filed the new version of the bill on Tuesday and a full vote is pending. 

Winter Storm Fern bills passed

The Legislature has passed two bills on to the governor that would help fund recovery from Winter Storm Fern.

Both chambers adopted SB 3104, which would give various agencies over $122 million from the state’s Capital Expense Fund. The largest appropriation provides $20 million for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency for disaster recovery, including Winter Storm Fern. 

On Sunday, lawmakers passed SB 3229 to allow the state to borrow money to help Entergy defray the cost of repairs to its power system from the storm. The storm is estimated to have caused over $200 million in damages to Mississippi’s largest energy provider. 

Legislators have said that the state is able to borrow money at a lower rate than Entergy would, and that by loaning the money to Entergy they can help prevent large rate hikes for customers to repair damages. The bill is similar to one that was passed for Mississippi Power Company after Hurricane Katrina caused widespread damage to its system in 2005.

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