For nearly a decade, we have been at the forefront of legal battles to protect the rights of Mississippians. Our impact litigation work has helped protect the voting rights of marginalized Mississippians, ensured Mississippians receive proper representation in the criminal justice system, defended the reproductive rights of women across the state, and so much more. Read how we are helping uphold your rights through our impact litigation campaign.
Current Cases
JFT v. Fitch — MCJ and its partners filed a lawsuit in the summer of 2025 and won a temporary restraining order, followed by a preliminary injunction challenging various free speech restrictions contained in a recently enacted Mississippi law designed to eliminate DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) from the state’s public colleges, universities, and K-12 schools. These include a provision prohibiting schools from teaching about the history and present-day reality of “issues of race, sex, color, gender identity, sexual orientation, or national origin.” The lawsuit also alleges that other provisions of the law are so vague and contradictory that students and teachers often do not know what they can and cannot talk about at school. The preliminary injunction prohibits school officials from enforcing the challenged provisions and from punishing teachers and students for talking about forbidden subjects. The State has appealed the preliminary injunction but it remains in place while the appeal goes forward.
Nash v. Carr Farms — In May of 2025, MCJ and Southern Migrant Legal Services filed their ninth lawsuit challenging the discriminatory practices of farmers in the Mississippi Delta who pay their local Black workers less than the foreign H-2A workers they bring in. In this ninth case, as in most of the prior cases, the H-2A workers are White South Africans. The prior cases were all settled with significant wage recoveries for the local workers who were our clients. Moreover, our advocacy led the United States Department of Labor to conduct its own investigation which led to financial compensation for more farmworkers at other Mississippi Delta farms. In this new case, we sued a farmer named Gregory Carr who has created a large number of corporate entities in the course of operating his farms and who has deliberately misclassified his Black U.S. workers as independent contractors to avoid making the required Medicaid and social security contributions related to their labor. More info on MCJ’s litigation on behalf of Black farmworkers in the Mississippi Delta is available here.
Gibson v. Case — Early in 2025, MCJ agreed to represent D’Monterrio Gibson, a Black FedEx driver who was chased and shot at by Brandon and Gregory Case, two white men, while he was delivering packages in their Lincoln County neighborhood in 2022. MCJ stepped in to Gibson’s civil lawsuit against the two men after Gibson’s former attorney was suspended from the practice of law for a year. Brandon and Gregory Case had been indicted on charges of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and shooting into a motor vehicle after months of community-led protests demanding accountability. However, the criminal trial ended abruptly in 2023 when the judge declared a mistrial after a Brookhaven Police Department witness gave improper testimony and admitted to withholding evidence from both prosecutors and defense attorneys. In January 2025, the judge granted a motion to permanently dismiss the charges, citing ongoing failures by the Brookhaven Police Department to disclose key evidence. With the criminal case now effectively over, the civil lawsuit is the next avenue to seek accountability for this violent attack.
Legislative Redistricting — In a case brought by MCJ and its partners, we won a federal court victory in the summer of 2024 requiring the State to create two new majority Black state senate districts and one new majority Black state house district. At our request, the Court ordered special elections for all redrawn districts the fall of 2025, which could lead to an increase in the number of Black legislators in Mississippi. This follows our victory in 2019 requiring the creation of another majority Black state senate district. Although the proportion of majority Black legislative districts is still not in line with Mississippi’s population, it is now much closer. The State has appealed the decision directly to the U.S. Supreme Court under an unusual appellate procedure that exists in statewide redistricting cases. The State has raised only one issue. It is asking the Supreme Court to take up the question of whether private citizens and organizations like our clients can bring lawsuits like this under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, as they have been doing for decades, or whether they can only be brought by the U.S. Department of Justice, which is what the State contends. We are responding by asking the Supreme Court to summarily affirm the lower court decision and the right of private parties and organizations to bring cases under Section 2.
Gibbs v. City of Jackson — We successfully challenged the Jackson Police Department’s roadblock policy known as “Ticket, Arrest, and Tow.” We brought the constitutional challenge in federal court with the Mississippi Alliance for Public Safety (MAPS) and on behalf of Mississippians who regularly drove in the majority Black and low-income neighborhoods where the roadblocks were disproportionately located. Under the 2022 consent decree, the City agreed to comply with a new checkpoint policy. It bans roadblocks for the purpose of checking for warrants or general crime control, it caps towing-related fees, and it requires drivers be given informational fliers at any checkpoints. The City also agreed to provide data regarding checkpoints to the plaintiffs on a quarterly basis. The plaintiffs—Lauren Rhoades, Archie Skiffer, Timothy Halcomb, LaQuenza Morgan—were represented by MCJ and The MacArthur Justice Center. Settlement materials and more information are available here.
RNC v. Wetzel — The Republican National Party and two individual plaintiffs sued the State of Mississippi to invalidate its ballot receipt deadline, which permits the counting of absentee ballots cast and posted on or before election day which are received within five days. The Court granted the motion to intervene and defend the law filed by Vet Voice Foundation and Mississippi Alliance for Retired Americans. Those defendant-intervenors are represented by MCJ and Elias Law Group LLP. The federal district court adopted our position and rejected the lawsuit, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed and struck down Mississippi’s law. The Mississippi Attorney General is asking the United States Supreme Court to take the case.
Prior Cases
Disability Rights Mississippi v. Fitch — MCJ joined with its partners in winning a federal court preliminary injunction preventing the State from implementing a 2023 Mississippi law that limited the universe of those who can help disabled voters cast absentee ballots by mail to election officials, postal employees, family and household members, and caregivers. Friends and neighbors were not allowed to help. In the 2024 legislative session, after our court victory, the legislature passed a revised bill that removed the restrictions we complained of and cured the problem that led to our lawsuit.
JXN Undivided Coalition v. Tindell — We brought a successful preliminary challenge to a law (2023 SB 2343) that makes all events, including peaceful protests, on public sidewalks and streets next to state government buildings in Jackson – a majority Black city – illegal without prior written permission from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner or Chief of the Capitol Police. The law was passed after waves of protests in Jackson against measures by the State of Mississippi to dilute or remove legal authority from majority-Black local government, elected officials, and residents. A federal judge granted our request for a preliminary injunction, blocking the prior restraint on speech indefinitely. The plaintiffs—JXN Undivided Coalition, Mississippi Votes, People’s Advocacy Institute, Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign, Black Votes Matter, and three local community organizers—were represented by MCJ and The MacArthur Justice Center.
Parents for Public Schools v. MS Dept of Finance & Administration — MCJ and its partners won a lower court injunction prohibiting the spending of $10 million appropriated by the legislature in 2022 to support private schools in Mississippi. We argued that this violated the Mississippi Constitution’s prohibition on appropriations to any school that is not a “free school.” Unfortunately, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed that decision on appeal and held that since the appropriation involved federal funds, it did not violate this provision of the state constitution.
State v. Curtis Flowers — After the conviction and death sentence from Curtis Flowers’ sixth trial was reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court, our Impact Litigation Director, Rob McDuff, was asked to lead his defense for a potential seventh trial. Our bail motion was granted in December 2019 leading to his release after 23 years in prison. Subsequently, we persuaded the Attorney General of Mississippi to dismiss all charges, bringing this tragic prosecution of an innocent man to an end on September 4.
Jackson Women’s Health Organization v. Dobbs — We assisted in the representation of Mississippi’s only abortion clinic for many years and obtained injunctions in multiple cases against draconian restrictions passed by Mississippi’s legislature to limit the rights of Mississippi women to make their own decisions in matters of childbirth. Unfortunately, in 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned our lower court victory in that case and overruled Roe v. Wade. As a result, abortion became illegal in Mississippi and many other states.
DHL Investments v. Smith — In this case involving a rent-to-own contract where a landlord in Jackson sued the tenant/purchasers who made all of their installment payments on the house itself but were late on the last four due to a loss of employment because of Covid, the Impact team joined with MCJ’s Economic Justice team this case in Hinds County Court. In the middle of trial, after we put the landlord on the stand, he agreed to settle the case on favorable terms to our client.
McLemore v. Hosemann — In our case with one of our partners challenging a provision of Mississippi’s racist 1890 Constitution that allowed Mississippi’s legislature to choose the winner of statewide elections under certain circumstances, the current legislature responded to the lawsuit by placing an amendment on the November ballot that was passed by the voters and repealed the 1890 provision.
Insider, Inc. v. Rankin County Sheriff’s Department — We brought a successful lawsuit under Mississippi’s Public Records Act to require the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department produce incident reports of Mississippians who had died at the hands of Rankin County deputies or in their custody. The suit was brought on behalf of a journalist; members of the Goon Squad were involved in deaths she was investigating. The plaintiff—Insider, Inc.—was represented by MCJ.
Harness v. Hosemann — We and our partners also brought suit against the felon disfranchisement provision of that same racist 1890 Constitution because it targeted what the framers considered to be Black crimes. Unfortunately, the federal courts denied our claim.
Waddell v. Cain — In this case where we and our partners challenged the woefully inadequate COVID-19 prevention and mitigation measures at Mississippi’s two largest prisons, we negotiated an agreement with prison officials which led to extensive improvements. More information is available here. The plaintiffs – Brittany Waddell, Roger Ewing, Tony Smith, Daniel Hatten, Douglass Triplett, Erik Lewis, Bob Henderson, Thomas Holder, and Jamarcus Davis – were represented by MCJ, The MacArthur Justice Center, ACLU of MS, Hogan Lovells US LLP, and Whitburn & Pevsner, PLLC.
Marshall Project v. MDOC & MTC — We represented the Marshall Project, a renowned investigative news organization focusing on criminal justice issues, in litigation over its effort to obtain records regarding operations of Mississippi’s private prison contractor. The court ordered the records to be disclosed. The plaintiff was represented by MCJ and Hawkins Law, P.C.
City of Petal v. Harris; City of Petal v. Ciobanu — We defended protesters against misdemeanor charges in the town of Petal, Mississippi relating to their public campaign in support of the movement for Black lives and an end to unjustified police killings.
Martinez v. Hancock County — Our lawsuit against a Mississippi county notorious for stopping Hispanic drivers on a pretense of drug searches led to a significant settlement for our clients — a family of three generations stopped and held at the sheriff’s office for hours while their car was thoroughly searched — and to adoption of new policies and significant structural changes in the sheriff’s department.
MIRA v. Watson — We challenged a 1927 Mississippi law requiring naturalized citizens, but no others, to present proof of citizenship in addition to the usual requirements to register to vote, and also Mississippi’s “matching” program that compares voter registration applications with the driver’s license database and often leads to voter registration denials of Hispanic people based on inaccurate assumptions that they are not citizens. Along with one of our partners, we reached a settlement in that case to address the problem and the statute was repealed.
Hadley v. Garner and Thrasher v. Rogers — We filed suit and obtained temporary restraining orders preventing landlords from cutting off utilities to two tenants in an effort to evict them in violation of the Governor’s order in the early stages of the pandemic placing a moratorium on evictions.
Barber v. Bryant — We challenged Mississippi’s anti-LGBT “religious freedom” law passed in 2016 and known as “House Bill 1523.” We won an injunction against the law from the federal district court that remained in place for a year until it was overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The United States Supreme Court denied our petition for review.
Zawadski v. Brewer Funeral Home — We settled our case against a Mississippi funeral home that refused to honor a contract for funeral services upon discovering that the male decedent’s spouse was also male.
Big House Books v. Hall — Our suit challenging the practice of the South Mississippi Correctional Institution of prohibiting delivery of free non-religious books to inmates while allowing it for religious books was resolved when the prison abandoned this unconstitutional practice.
Human Rights Defense Center v. Forrest County — Our suit against Forrest County, Mississippi and its Sheriff for restricting reading materials in the jail and refusing to allow prisoners to receive the HRDC’s publications, including the well-respected periodical Prison Legal News, was resolved by consent decree when the Sheriff agreed to a new policy that conforms to the First Amendment.