Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves appointed Second Circuit Court District Attorney Joel Smith to fill the vacant position among the Mississippi Court of Appeals outside the Harrison County Courthouse in Gulfport, Miss on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. (Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via AP)

by Hunter Dawkins, Owner/Publisher – editor@thegazebogazette.com or hdawkins@supertalk.fm

JACKSON (GG) — On a Friday, April 24 announcement via social media, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves called the Mississippi State Legislature to convene for a special session 21 days after the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais case.

“It is my sincere hope that, in deciding Callais, the U.S. Supreme Court will reaffirm the animating principle that all Americans are created equal and that when the government classifies its citizens on the basis of race, even as a perceived remedy to right a wrong, it engages in the offensive and demeaning assumption that Americans of a particular race, because of their race, think alike and share the same interests and preferences,” said Reeves in his social media post. “It is my belief and federal law requires that the Mississippi Legislature be given the first opportunity to draw these maps.”

There is no exact timeline for the ruling of this case, which the result in Louisiana v. Callais could have impacts for Mississippi’s proposed new maps for its three state Supreme Court districts, which are in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals pending the decision in the Louisiana case.

The state is defending its proposed map in the state legislature after a U.S. District Court sided with a complaint that the new lines violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act due to diluting the voting of Black voters in these districts.

The U.S. District Court stopped its appellate proceedings until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the Louisiana case. The Mississippi State Legislature has not redrawn State Supreme Court districts since 1987.

According to Mississippi State Law, when a special session is called by the Governor, the state taxpayers pay $10,000 a day for the legislature to convene.

(Photos by Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via Associated Press)