Chancellor to rule by Friday.
Hinds County Chancellor Dewayne Thomas is holding a hearing on whether to issue an injunction against HB #1020 this morning. The hearing is streamed below.
* The Chancellor will address whether the appointment of the special judges to Hinds County is constitutional.
* The plaintiffs contend the Mississippi Constitution (MC) states only the Governor can appoint temporary judges. Judge Thomas will ask the defendants how they can get around that provision.
* Another issue for Judge Thomas is whether there is a right to appeal in the CCID special court.
* The Court first addressed Chief Justice Randolph's motion to disqualify him from the lawsuit. The Chief Justice argues he enjoys absolute judicial immunity. His lawyer argued the Chief Justice should be dismissed because judicial acts, including appointments, enjoy such immunity. The Chief Justice lacks sufficient interest in the outcome of the litigation. He can only appoint if the law is valid as he is neutral and has no power to enforce the statute.
The plaintiff's attorney, Cliff Johnson, claimed seeking injunctive relief instead of damages takes the Chief Justice out of the realm of absolute immunity. The Chief Justice did not "ask for this" but the "legislature forced it upon him." He may be neutral to HB #1020 but is central to its enforcement. The law directs him to appoint the special judges. Mr. Johnson said the Chancellor can enjoin the Chief Justice from making the appointments. The goal of judicial immunity is to keep judges from worrying about being sued for damages based upon their decisions. He likened it to suing department heads when suing state agencies.
Funny. Mr. Nelson is pointing out the Alabama case cited by Mr. Johnson was the "Ten Commandments case." The attorney for the Chief Justice argued both injunctive relief and damages are brought about under civil actions, under which he enjoys absolute immunity.
* Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zachary Wallace sought the same relief as the Chief Justice. His attorney, Pieter Teeuwissen, said the lawsuit states Circuit Clerk assigns the cases. The Circuit Clerk assigns the cases at the direction of the Chief Justice. The attorney claimed there is no case in Mississippi that states a Chancellor can order a Circuit Clerk to do anything. There is simply no reason for Mr. Wallace to be a party in case. Mr. Johnson said he is needed in the case so he can obtain relief from someone who "administers relief." Mr. Teeuwissen said Mr. Johnson inadvertently walked into the problem. Mr. Wallace can only assign cases sent to him. It's not necessary to involve his office.
* Mr. Johnson asked the Court to include the state as a defendant in case he dismisses the defendants.
Judge Thomas took a break to consider the matter.
* Cliff Johnson argued in closing the Mississippi Constitution requires the election of Circuit Court judges. It allows the appointment of judges in only limited circumstances when judges are unable to sit on the bench. HB #1020 requires the Chief Justice appoint four temporary circuit judges for Hinds County. No limitations are placed upon their duties. The judges will serve 42 months, 6 months shy of a full term. The Chief Justice has abused his authority in the past to appoint special judges in Hinds County. He appointed four such judges last year. Mr. Johnson argued he needed a preliminary injunction so he could engage in discovery and other matters to properly litigate the case and protect the citizens of Hinds County from the harm of HB #1020.
Section 165 of the Mississippi Constitution provides the crux of his argument:
Whenever any judge of the Supreme Court or the judge or chancellor of any district in this state shall, for any reason, be unable or disqualified to preside at any term of court, or in any case where the attorneys engaged therein shall not agree upon a member of the bar to preside in his place, the governor may commission another, or others, of law knowledge, to preside at such term or during such disability or disqualification in the place of the judge or judges so disqualified.
He argues no where is the Chief Justice mentioned when judicial appointments are made. The lawyer also argued the CCID court should be declared unconstitutional since it does not have a right to appeal its decision.
* State attorney Rex Shannon argued the Chancellor lacks subject-matter jurisdiction while the plaintiffs lack standing. The plaintiffs are asking the Court to terminate all appointments of special judges. The injunction would invalidate their orders and rulings. The Chancellor has no power to review the power of the Chief Justice to appoint special judges.
If the Court finds it has jurisdiction, the request should be denied since HB #1020 does not violate the constitution. Section 153 does not apply to temporary circuit judges. Section 165 says the Governor can appoint when a permanent judge is disqualified. It is silent on temporary judges. It is well settled that the state constitution does not grant legislative powers but merely limits them. Nothing in Section 165 limits the power of the legislature to appoint special judges. The Court of Appeals said twice the section does not limit such appointments. The powers of the Hinds County circuit judges are not diluted as the law, not voters, are their constituency.
Section 172 allows the legislature to create inferior courts. The CCID court will operate along the lines of a municipal court:
The legislature shall, from time to time, establish such other inferior courts as may be necessary, and abolish the same whenever deemed expedient.
The CCID court will have the same appeal right as municipal and justice courts. The elephant in the room is Jackson's crime problem. Jackson is the state's capitol city and largest city. The state has a strong interest in reducing crime in Jackson. The law is an attempt to address the crime problem.
Mr. Johnson said past orders and rulings will not be invalidated. He said Jackson's crime problems "are no worse than anywhere else." There is no analysis of how the extra judges will help the crime problem. "Something is going on here." The people are not blindfolded. "This is dangerous. It's unconstitutional," concluded the Oxford lawyer.
The hearing concluded. The Chancellor said the parties could submit additional memoranda until noon tomorrow. He said he will try to have a ruling by Friday.
10 comments:
Argument tokeep Jackson BLOODY
Just hang it all up and send it to the 5th Circuit so they can rule it is constitutional and it can quit bouncing around in these racist liberal lower courts and be approved once and for all.
You know what? I was born and raised in Jackson but I retired to Hattiesburg because Jackson has turned into some type of MadMax Dystopia. It is past time for you guys there to get the political will and revoke the city charter and start over.
This is what they do. If they don’t have votes they go to the courts. I still don’t understand why every time someone tries to help Jackson people fight it tooth and nail
@12:52 - I don’t think many citizens of Jackson see this as an honest attempt to help. I’m sure I would be quite jaded as well in their shoes. Not sure what you think is wrong with taking laws you think are unconstitutional to the courts, it’s kind of their purpose. The republicans do the same thing like when they successfully overturned a law directly voted on by the voters dealing with medical marijuana. Even though the citizens of the state voted heavily in favor, the Republicans managed to create a technical loophole to challenge it and since all the judges are hardcore republicans, they voted with the party against the citizens. Politics isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about money and control.
What's wrong with Cliff Johnson?
Is Johnson completely stupid?
I'd love to invite him to my house to hear the gunfire I hear at night.
How can anyone be that clueless?
Johnson: "You can call me Johnson or you can call me jaded, but I need those JPS dumbed down democrat votes to get my judge bucks.
Johnson is nothing more than a savage in a suit. He lives in the ivory tower up in Oxford. From his elevated view in the rarified air, Jackson doesn't have a crime problem. He opposes building ANY kind of misdemeanor jail or holding facility. He has no problem with the constant gunfire in all parts of Jackson every night, the speeding and donuts that have turned Jackson streets into roads of anarchy, has no problem with record murders or highest murder rate in the country, the dwindling police, or the soft treatment of murder suspects who commit more crime when they get back on the street. See the Hopkins case JJ recently covered.
@124 -- THe "Republicans" did it when they went to court over medical marijuana? Don't believe your attempt at throwing shade on your opposition party works here - City of Madison was the person who filed suit over the constitutionality of the existing I&R law.
They didn't file suit against Maryjo, and it wasn't "republicans". And all the judges are not republicans. Furthermore, the judges ruled on the law and not the politics - like you say, if they were ruling on the politics they would have ruled the I&R was constitutional (even though the law as weritten wasn't) because 57% of the people who voted, voted for it (or what they thought "it" was).
As to your other point, I think many citizens of Jackson see this as an honest attempt to help; many of the political ilk may not because it steps on their toes. And many defense counsel might not like it because they use the failure of the Hinds County Judicial system to try cases as a great defense for guilty clients. But many of the parents and grandparents that are tired of their kids and grandkids not being able to travel the streets, play in the yard, go to school - whatever - because of the rampant crime in their neighborhood streets want to see it fixed, and understand that the local officials don't want it fixed. So yes - they see any attempt at fixing the crime as being an improvement, and honest.
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