Court: No Voters' Right to Govern Airport, OK to Hide Communications
Capital-city residents do not have the right to govern the Jackson Medgar-Evers Wiley Airport or subpoena records from Mississippi legislators who voted to take over control of the facility, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled late last month.
The Aug. 21 decision came after the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority brought an equal-protection claim against the State of Mississippi, arguing that the 2016 decision to take control of the airport from a majority-black city and local government—despite the fact that all other municipalities in Mississippi retain control of their airports—constitutes racial discrimination against Jackson voters.
The plaintiffs claim that the law enacts "an illegal dilution of voting and other rights of the citizens of Jackson," the order shows. The 5th Circuit, however, ruled that citizen participation in the airport authority is not a legally protected interest, and therefore voters cannot sue for discrimination.
In 2016, Gov. Phil Bryant signed Senate Bill 2162, dubbed the "airport takeover" bill, which would replace the five-person, City-appointed airport commissioners with a nine-person board, only two of whom would be Jackson appointees. Because municipal airports provide millions of dollars in revenue for cities, the bill drew immediate criticism from the City of Jackson and its residents, who viewed the move as an attempt to divest vital economic resources away from majority-black, financially strapped Jackson and into affluent majority-white neighboring suburbs in Rankin and Madison counties.
Read more: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/sep/16/court-no-voters-right-govern-airport-ok-hide-commu/
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