Jackson Free Press

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A handful of Democrats on Wednesday showed dissatisfaction with Mississippi's Republican-dominated legislative process by conducting filibusters with long-winded readings of bills.

"Only those bills that have been blessed by the leadership are coming out of committees," Sen. Barbara Blackmon, D-Canton, told reporters Wednesday to explain why she was having bills read aloud in the Senate.

Blackmon said she believes the Senate Judiciary A Committee meeting was improperly called Tuesday, in violation of Senate rules.

A schedule showed the committee was set to meet after the Senate adjourned for the day, but the meeting was held when the Senate was taking a break — "in recess," in legislative terms. Blackmon made the same argument during the committee meeting Tuesday, but Chairman Sean Tindell, R-Gulfport, said he believed he had properly called the meeting.

Senate Judiciary A passed a bill during that meeting that says state officials, private business owners and others who provide services to the public couldn't be punished for acting on religious beliefs that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. The bill, backed by religious conservatives and House Republican leaders, was filed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision that made same-sex marriage legal nationwide.

Tindell said during the meeting Tuesday that he wanted the committee to pass the bill without changing it, and all amendments failed. If a bill passes both chambers in the same form, it goes to the governor. If one chamber changes a bill, the other must accept the changes or the bill goes into final negotiations, where it could stall.

Blackmon said it is unfair to legislators, and their constituents, for a chairman to try to block amendments to divisive legislation.

The filibuster being conducted in the House was to protest a bill to widen control of the Jackson airport to a regional board.

The fight over the airport bill was one thing that pushed the House to the February standoff, which ended with an agreement between Republican and Democratic leaders.

Rep. Christopher Bell, D-Jackson, said Democrats understood that Republican leaders would let the bill die as a part of the agreement.

"The city of Jackson is under attack from individuals in Madison and Rankin counties," Bell said Wednesday. "This is not just about the makeup of the board."

Jackson is majority-black and has a black mayor and majority-black City Council. Madison and Rankin counties, in the Jackson suburbs, are majority-white.

Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, said Democrats would make a strong effort to oppose the bill.

"This is just a land grab by the state of Mississippi," said Rep. Blackmon, the husband of Sen. Blackmon. "What state government tells a city that the elected officials are incapable of governing?"

Most of the legislators filibustering Wednesday are black, but they were joined by Sen. Deborah Dawkins, R-Pass Christian, who is white but often supports the Legislative Black Caucus.

Bills in the Senate were being read aloud by a person for nearly two hours, but the staff then switched to a computer-generated voice.

Those in the House were being read rapidly by an automated voice.