FILE - Mississippi state Sens. Rod Hickman, D-Macon, left, Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, second from left, Albert Butler, D-Port Gibson, and David Jordan, D-Greenwood, review an alternate Senate redistricting map at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., March 29, 2022. Three federal judges ruled Tuesday, July 2, 2024, that Mississippi legislators must redraw some state House and Senate districts because the districts adopted in 2022 dilute Black voting power. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
- In 2025, the Mississippi Legislature was forced by court order to redistrict and hold special elections, costing Republicans their supermajority in the Mississippi Senate. On Monday, the Supreme Court vacated that court order that required those elections.
The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated an order from a three-judge panel that forced legislative redistricting under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The resulting special legislative elections held last year saw Republicans lose their supermajority in the state Senate.
The NAACP initially brought the case to the lower court on behalf of 14 individuals who claimed black voting strength was being diluted in certain areas of the state. The federal three-judge panel ordered mid-term legislative redistricting be done to allow for higher black voting age populations in North Mississippi, namely DeSoto County, along with Pine Belt senate and house districts. A total of 15 special elections followed in November 2025.
The Board of Election Commissioners and the Mississippi Republican Party appealed the lower court’s decision prior to the special elections, arguing that private parties such as the NAACP and the individuals it represented were not entitled to sue to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which caused the 2025 redistricting and subsequent special legislative elections.
The Attorney General and the state GOP contended that “only Congress” decides whether private parties may sue to enforce the federal statute, and Congress has allowed such suits only in “atypical cases.”
Monday’s order from the U.S. Supreme Court was brief, stating, “Judgment VACATED and case REMANDED for further consideration in light of Louisiana v. Callais.”
The Callais case, recently decided by the nation’s highest court, found that race could not be used as a determinative factor in drawing districts and changed the evidentiary standard required to sustain an alleged racial discrimination claim under the Voting Rights Act.
Michelle Williams, Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s chief of staff told Magnolia Tribune, “This is a very good outcome for the State. We are reviewing the order to determine next steps now.”
Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson was the lone dissenter. Brown Jackson argued that the state had only appealed “Section 2’s private enforceability, which our decision in Louisiana v. Callais did not address.”
By vacating the entire lower court order, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to answer the private right of action question posed by the state. The Court’s action suggests it is punting on the question of private enforceability because it believes the lower court’s order is invalid for other reasons — namely the decision in Callais.
The case now goes back to the lower court for further briefing to determine how Callais impacts the previous order and what legal remedies should be imposed.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates as more information becomes available.
Russ Latino
