The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 3/30/8
The current boundaries of the 1st Congressional District are the result of an unusual set of circumstances that began in 2000 with the decennial census and ended in 2002 after a flurry of legal activity.
The redrawing of congressional districts is normally left to the Legislature. But in the fall of 2001, it went beyond the lawmakers and into the courts.
That year, the Legislature was supposed to redraw the congressional districts to ensure that the population of the state’s districts was roughly equal based on the 2000 Census.
But lawmakers faced a problem: Based on the 2000 Census, Mississippi would lose one of its five congressional seats, and the House and Senate could not agree on how to draw the districts.
“We just wanted fair districts” where no incumbent was unduly penalized, said Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson. “The Supreme Court had said we could do that.”
Magnolia Tribune
