Jackson Jambalaya

Given the hyper-partisanship dominating Mississippi politics ...

99.9999% pure unadulterated hyperbole.

10:33 Hyperbole? Legislative repubs' first act when the 2016 session began was to divide up the vote toteboard in the House by "D" and "R."

House Apportionment and Elections has 10 Republicans and 7 Democrats. A couple of the Republicans on this committee stray from the party line on some votes. House Judiciary A has 14 Republicans and 11 Democrats. A couple of the Republicans on this committee stray from the party line on some votes. If the Speaker of the House wanted to ram the bill through committee without potential opposition, he could have sent it to the Rules Committee where Republicans outnumber Democrats 9 to 2.

3:48...You're confusing the writer with alternatives to his narrative. You should never do that with an opinionated reporter.

Boy;;;;; talk about a waste of money. And we wonder why the state is always broke; or so they say.

there is nothing fiscally responsible about Mississippi's judicial branch of government. We have the most Supreme Court justices of any state in the country. We have a court of appeals, which is even bigger than the Supreme Court. We have circuit judges. And chancery court judges. And county court judges. And justice court judges. And municipal court judges. And youth court referees. And special masters. And special judges. We have drug courts. And now we may add mental health courts.

Partisan judicial elections are fitting. Why not make the elections for these judicial positions as inefficient as the actual judicial positions?

Not everything is about money.
The judiciary should be about the balance of power and the rule of law. Justice is supposed to be blind and balanced. We can hardly hold corrupt politicians accountable if a judge is biased and afraid he won't be re-elected if the party isn't happy with his rulings. We should want legal scholars on the bench, not party hacks if we are interested in equal treatment before the law.
The other bill is equally biased in favor of one party rule. At best,it becomes a popularity contest about name recognition and not about issues and at worst , it fosters consolidation of power.
While 10:08 pm may have a point about the structure, this bill doesn't address structure. And, in changing structure, the need for justice to be swift matters if you are an abused child or someone who has to pay legal fees to obtain justice. "Justice delayed is justice denied" is not just an old saying.

6:49, why would a judge be afraid they would not get elected again if they locked up criminals? The only reason I can think of is the citizens who elect the judges are majority criminals.

10:22 am I suspect that many citizens don't know what the case facts were when the criminal got " off" or know whether it was the judge, the prosecutor or police or the jury or a combination of those factors.
If it was the any of those , you can't ignore that when you politicize the judicial system and when you've created a climate where justice has been about race for a long, long time, bad things happen. Or have you forgotten when white murderers walked and innocent blacks who wanted equal treatment were jailed?
Add that political corruption has been a pattern in this state for a long time and I don't know why you are surprised that the black community learned that corruption works.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but no one should be surprised that you reap what you sow .