Former GOP candidate Robert Foster joins challenge to judicial redistricting
Several DeSoto County residents, including former Republican gubernatorial candidate and county Supervisor Robert Foster, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Mississippi Legislature’s creation of majority-Black subdistricts for state judicial elections, arguing that the districts violate the Voting Rights Act.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that the redistricting scheme enacted through H.B. 1544 and S.B. 2768 is “racially motivated and mathematically problematic.” The complaint states that the laws are “doubly unconstitutional and violate federal law as they treat similarly situated citizens unequally and deny 3 out of 4 DeSoto Countians the right to vote based on race.”
When the Legislature redrew the state’s court districts, it gave DeSoto County an additional judge for Circuit Court and for Chancery Court. However, those judges must be elected from a majority-Black subdistrict, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs argue that this arrangement effectively denies three-quarters of the county’s voters the ability to vote for those judges.
The lawsuit was filed against the three-member State Board of Election Commissioners, which is comprised of Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch. Fitch’s office will likely defend the state in the litigation. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
State Sen. Mike McLendon, a Republican from Hernando, is not a party to the litigation, but he told Mississippi Today in a statement that he supports the lawsuit.