Mississippi Today
Reeves signs 'culture of life' post-Roe bills, says Mississippi is 'beacon on the hill' for other states
Reeves signs ‘culture of life’ post-Roe bills, says Mississippi is ‘beacon on the hill’ for other states
Gov. Tate Reeves in a ceremony Wednesday signed into law the last three of a handful of bills he said shows Mississippi’s commitment to helping mothers and children post abortion ban.
He said Mississippi’s lawsuit that overturned Roe v. Wade abortion rights nationwide was only a first step, but that Mississippi is “walking the walk … delivering on our promise to mothers and babies.”
Reeves on Wednesday signed three bills, two aimed at helping Mississippi adoption and foster care and a third increasing tax credits for those who donate to state crisis pregnancy resource centers. He also recounted multiple bills he’s signed recently, creating a task force to improve adoption and foster care laws, to provide more funding and autonomy for the state’s Child Protection Services agency, and expanding use of “safe haven” boxes where parents can leave babies for adoption without fear of endangering the child or facing legal repercussions.
When asked, Reeves said he is also hopeful the extension of postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers from 60 days to a year that he signed about a month ago will also help.
“I believe there’s a good chance that it will help,” Reeves said of the extended Medicaid coverage for mothers, but said the state lacks good data on that and many other health care issues. He said it “stands to reason” that if mothers receive more and longer-term care their health outcomes will improve.
But Reeves, up for reelection this year, reiterated his opposition to expanding Medicaid coverage for the working poor as most other states have done. He was asked by media to respond to Democratic gubernatorial challenger Brandon Presley vowing to expand Medicaid and saying it would be a pro-life move and help Mississippi hospital closure crisis.
Presley has vowed to expand Medicaid his first day in office.
“We’ve turned back billions of dollars in Mississippi,” he said. “Not because of policy. Only reason we’ve turned down federal dollars for health care in Mississippi is petty, partisan, cheap politics.”
On Wednesday Reeves said, “I have not changed my position on the expansion of Obamacare. Adding 300,000 additional people to welfare in our state is not the right path for Mississippi.”
Reeves said his plan to help the health care crisis in Mississippi is to help create jobs for people to have “more opportunity to be in the workplace.”
Reeves was flanked by several lawmakers as he signed the bills, and the room was packed with church representatives and pro-life advocates, who applauded the governor frequently.
Andrea Sanders, director of state Child Protection Services, thanked Reeves and lawmakers at a press conference after he signed bills.
“I would like to thank Gov. Reeves for his constant refrain: Being pro life means more than just being anti-abortion,” Sanders said. “We right now have 3,706 live souls on board, in the custody of the state … This year we have seen an unprecedented, early focus on families and children … the state is prepared to focus on the work that this agency does, which is different from any other in the state.”
Bills signed into law Wednesday by Reeves are:
House Bill 510: This establishes a “foster parents bill of rights,” aimed at increasing transparency for foster parents and providing them with more help from the Department of Child Protection Services.
House Bill 1671: This expands the cap on tax credits for pregnancy resource centers across the state from $3.5 million a year to $10 million. Reeves said this will help the centers, which prior to the abortion ban helped counsel expectant mothers against abortion, hire more people and expand services.
Senate Bill 2696: This creates an income tax credit for adoption expenses. It covers a maximum of $10,000 of qualified expenses for Mississippians who adopt children from Mississippi and up to $5,000 for those who adopt children out of state.
Sen. Nicole Akins Boyd, R-Oxford, was among the lawmakers who attended Wednesday’s bill signing. Starting last year, she headed up a special committee created by Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann to direct post-Roe legislation to help mothers, children and families.
Boyd said she is proud of the measures lawmakers passed and Reeves signed this year. She said task forces on foster care and adoption and on early intervention have major tasks ahead in informing policy and funding in Mississippi, and she expects her special committee will continue.
“There is a lot of work still to do — lots of work,” Boyd said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
An ad supporting Jenifer Branning finds imaginary liberals on the Mississippi Supreme Court
The Improve Mississippi PAC claims in advertising that the state Supreme Court “is in danger of being dominated by liberal justices” unless Jenifer Branning is elected in Tuesday’s runoff.
Improve Mississippi made the almost laughable claim in both radio commercials and mailers that were sent to homes in the court’s central district, where a runoff election will be held on Tuesday.
Improve Mississippi is an independent, third party political action committee created to aid state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County in her efforts to defeat longtime Central District Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens of Copiah County.
The PAC should receive an award or at least be considered for an honor for best fiction writing.
At least seven current members of the nine-member Supreme Court would be shocked to know anyone considered them liberal.
It is telling that the ads do not offer any examples of “liberal” Supreme Court opinions issued by the current majority. It is even more telling that there have been no ads by Improve Mississippi or any other group citing the liberal dissenting opinions written or joined by Kitchens.
Granted, it is fair and likely accurate to point out that Branning is more conservative than Kitchens. After all, Branning is considered one of the more conservative members of a supermajority Republican Mississippi Senate.
As a member of the Senate, for example, she voted against removing the Confederate battle emblem from the Mississippi state flag, opposed Medicaid expansion and an equal pay bill for women.
And if she is elected to the state Supreme Court in Tuesday’s runoff election, she might be one of the panel’s more conservative members. But she will be surrounded by a Supreme Court bench full of conservatives.
A look at the history of the members of the Supreme Court might be helpful.
Chief Justice Michael Randolph originally was appointed to the court by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who is credited with leading the effort to make the Republican Party dominant in Mississippi. Before Randolph was appointed by Barbour, he served a stint on the National Coal Council — appointed to the post by President Ronald Reagan who is considered an icon in the conservative movement.
Justices James Maxwell, Dawn Beam, David Ishee and Kenneth Griffis were appointed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant.
Only three members of the current court were not initially appointed to the Supreme Court by conservative Republican governors: Kitchens, Josiah Coleman and Robert Chamberlin. All three got their initial posts on the court by winning elections for full eight-year terms.
But Chamberlin, once a Republican state senator from Southaven, was appointed as a circuit court judge by Barbour before winning his Supreme Court post. And Coleman was endorsed in his election effort by both the Republican Party and by current Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who also contributed to his campaign.
Only Kitchens earned a spot on the court without either being appointed by a Republican governor or being endorsed by the state Republican Party.
The ninth member of the court is Leslie King, who, like Kitchens, is viewed as not as conservative as the other seven justices. King, former chief judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals, was originally appointed to the Supreme Court by Barbour, who to his credit made the appointment at least in part to ensure that a Black Mississippian remained on the nine-member court.
It should be noted that Beam was defeated on Nov. 5 by David Sullivan, a Gulf Coast municipal judge who has a local reputation for leaning conservative. Even if Sullivan is less conservative when he takes his new post in January, there still be six justices on the Supreme Court with strong conservative bonafides, not counting what happens in the Branning-Kitchens runoff.
Granted, Kitchens is next in line to serve as chief justice should Randolph, who has been on the court since 2004, step down. The longest tenured justice serves as the chief justice.
But to think that Kitchens as chief justice would be able to exert enough influence to force the other longtime conservative members of the court to start voting as liberals is even more fiction.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1968
Nov. 24, 1968
Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver fled the U.S. to avoid imprisonment on a parole violation. He wrote in “Soul on Ice”: “If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.”
The Arkansas native began to be incarcerated when he was still in junior high and soon read about Malcolm X. He began writing his own essays, drawing the praise of Norman Mailer and others. That work helped him win parole in 1966. His “Soul on Ice” memoir, written from Folsom state prison, described his journey from selling marijuana to following Malcolm X. The book he wrote became a seminal work in Black literature, and he became a national figure.
Cleaver soon joined the Black Panther Party, serving as the minister of information. After a Panther shootout with police that left him injured, one Panther dead and two officers wounded, he jumped bail and fled the U.S. In 1977, after an unsuccessful suicide attempt, he returned to the U.S. pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of assault and served 1,200 hours of community service.
From that point forward, “Mr. Cleaver metamorphosed into variously a born-again Christian, a follower of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a Mormon, a crack cocaine addict, a designer of men’s trousers featuring a codpiece and even, finally, a Republican,” The New York Times wrote in his 1998 obituary. His wife said he was suffering from mental illness and never recovered.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1867
Nov. 23, 1867
The Louisiana Constitutional Convention, composed of 49 White delegates and 49 Black delegates, met in New Orleans. The new constitution became the first in the state’s history to include a bill of rights.
The document gave property rights to married women, funded public education without segregated schools, provided full citizenship for Black Americans, and eliminated the Black Codes of 1865 and property qualifications for officeholders.
The voters ratified the constitution months later. Despite the document, prejudice and corruption continued to reign in Louisiana, and when Reconstruction ended, the constitution was replaced with one that helped restore the rule of white supremacy.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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