Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has joined the national redistricting fight, calling a special session of the legislature to redistrict the state’s congressional maps after an expected Supreme Court decision on race-based districts is made.
“I don’t typically make news on a Friday afternoon, but today I am going to make an exception: I’m calling a special session,” Reeves announced on X April 24.
The date of the session will be three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court publishes its decision on the Callais case that focuses on the constitutionality of Louisiana’s congressional map and the use of racial factors in deciding congressional districts.
The Mississippi Legislature discussed drawing new maps to comply with an earlier Callais decision from a federal judge, but that was appealed, Reeves said.
“It is a decision that could (and in my view should) forever change the way we draw electoral maps,” Reeves said.
“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,” Reeves said. “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—a concept that is odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.”
The Supreme Court seemed poised to strike down race-based redistricting as unconstitutional, or at least rein in the practice, according to court experts. The court has not indicated when the justices might issue a decision.
The special session will start on the 21st day after the Supreme Court issues the Callais decision, according to the governor’s decree.
Virginia’s redistricting referendum was approved by a narrow margin of 51 percent April 21 but was nullified by a circuit court judge the next day who ruled the measure was invalid. The state has appealed the ruling.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also called a special session, set to start April 28, to decide whether the state will also redraw its district maps to “accurately reflect the population of [the] state.”
The Florida Senate is not drafting or producing a map at the session but is expecting a proposal to be presented by the governor, according to the session memo.