Justice Dept. signs off on state’s ambitious ethics-reform law

The Clarion-Ledger, 8/7/8

The U.S. Department of Justice has given its OK for Mississippi to put into action the state’s most sweeping government ethics and transparency reform in decades.

Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law in May a bill that gives the Mississippi Ethics Commission significantly more authority.

Because the law touches on portions of state law dealing with the election and removal of public officials, it required federal approval before it could go into effect. In a letter sent Tuesday, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division informed state officials that U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey “does not interpose any objection” to the law.