Jackson Free Press

The Mississippi Tea Party wants a federal three-judge panel to toss a redistricting map that favors Democrats.

The Tea Party filed a friend of the court brief in U.S. District Court last week questioning the court's decision to adopt a Mississippi House of Representatives redistricting plan as the House election map for 2011. That plan is the same one rejected by Senate Republicans during the state Legislature's regular session. A three-judge panel ruled that it would consider two maps Mississippi House of Representatives and the Mississippi Senate partially passed. The panel invited other interested parties, including the Mississippi Republican Party, to dispute its decision at a May 10 hearing.

The Mississippi Tea Party is clearly one of the parties to fight it.

"If (the court) issues a ruling ordering elections to be held in 2011 for seats in the state House of Representatives using district lines that have not been created through the process mandated in our state constitution, then that ruling will undermine the very concept of the Rule of Law upon which all of our country's advancement has been built," the organization said in a statement.

The maps the court is considering have not "been created through the process mandated" by the state constitution because Senate Republicans repeatedly rejected a House-approved redistricting plan last month. Both chambers must submit their own redistricting proposals to the opposite chamber for approval.
Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, who presides over the Senate, said he opposed the House-approved plan because it did not contain enough Republican-majority districts and would ensure a Democratic House Speaker in the next election. The NAACP, which filed suit in March demanding the federal court impose a map before the 2011 primaries and election, approves of the House map because it contains more black-majority districts. Blacks tend to vote Democrat in Mississippi, fostering opposition between the NAACP and the Mississippi Republican Party.

The Mississippi Tea Party claims that its opposition to the House-approved plan--which mirrors the opinion of the Mississippi Republican Party--has nothing to do with Democrats' preference for the plan, or the number of black-majority and Democrat-majority districts it creates.

"It is worth noting that while the MSTP and its members hold certain political viewpoints ... it is not the intent of the brief to assess the efficacy of any specific redistricting plan or to analyze the electoral implications of enacting any specific plan," the party states in its brief.

Instead, the organization argues in its filing that should the court impose the partially approved plan "it will discourage future cooperation between the chambers, may have the effect of precluding the alternative means for redistricting ... and may well lead to long-term judicial intervention in place of legislative compromise in what is, undoubtedly, a legislative task."

The Mississippi Tea Party requests that the court step out of the picture and allow Republican Gov. Haley Barbour to call a special session to continue the legislative redistricting process. Failing that, the party argues that the court can allow elections to happen this year under the current maps, despite Census 2010 information revealing population changes making redistricting necessary. (Under federal law, districts must share a near-equal population.)

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Jamie Franks said the court should stick to its guns in supporting the House and Senate plans passed in the individual chambers this legislative session.

"The debate is about making sure that everybody has equal representation," Franks said. "The way the districts are now, they're mal-proportioned. Some people have more representation and some have less representation. The three-judge panel has already said that the Senate and the House plan both meet the requirements under the law and are inclined to pass them."

Previous Comments

ID

163393

Comment

So the "very concept" of the "rule of law" is undermined by a legal hearing on whether the state's actions conform to the law? Hmm. I don't those words mean what they think they mean.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2011-05-09T12:33:13-06:00

ID

163395

Comment

The Ms. Tea Party seems to be using an opinion piece written by Sec. of State Delbert Hosemann as their platform for their brief. Both cite the Ms. Constitution for their resource; and yet both ignore the 1978 Supreme Court ruling in Wise v. Lipscomb (and later upheld in McDaniel v. Sanchez, 1981), stating that a redistricting plan - if approved by a state legislative body (House and/or Senate) - is still considered a "legislative plan", even if it wasn't approved exactly in accordance to state law. I say "ignore", because it is my opinion that Hosemann is well aware of this, but is perhaps using the occasion as red meat for groups like the tea party and those that favor stronger states' rights.

Author

jamesparker

Date

2011-05-09T13:15:25-06:00

ID

163421

Comment

The Tea Party is at it again. MS has the title of being the most consevative state in the nation, according to a recent poll. The Republican/Tea Party ideas and actions are putting this State in over-drive as it heads down a cliff.

Author

justjess

Date

2011-05-09T22:38:15-06:00

ID

163428

Comment

If we don't change direction, we will get where we are going. Time for a Change.

Author

BobbyKearan

Date

2011-05-10T08:57:03-06:00