Personhood

Mississippi Legislature Trying Again For A Personhood Amendment

Jillian Rayfield | February 21, 2012, 12:23PM

Anti-abortion demonstrators in Washington, DC.

Republicans in Mississippi are hoping that second time's a charm for a "Personhood" amendment.

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Mississippi

Mississippi Rep. Wants The Gulf Of Mexico Renamed The 'Gulf Of America' (UPDATED)

Jillian Rayfield | February 9, 2012, 11:10AM

Updated, February 9, 9:16PM

Mississippi State Rep. Steve Holland said later on Thursday his bill was meant as satire, to mock tough anti-immigration bills introduced by his fellow legislators.

The original piece follows:

A lawmaker in Mississippi is pushing to change the name of "the body of water located directly south" of the state, the Gulf of Mexico, to the "Gulf of America."

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BP

Lawsuit Claims Former BP Employee Was Fired For Refusing To Skew Clean-Up Data

Jillian Rayfield | January 25, 2012, 8:56AM

Updated January 25, 2012 at 11:29 am.

A former employee of BP America is suing the oil company for wrongful termination, alleging that he was canned for refusing to alter data about the progress of the clean-up of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

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Voter Identification

Analysis: Minority Voters Overwhelmingly Rejected Mississippi Voter ID Law

Ryan J. Reilly | January 6, 2012, 1:48PM

Less than 25 percent of non-white Mississippi citizens voted in favor of a state constitutional amendment to require voter ID at the polls compared to about 83 percent of white voters, according to a newly released report.

An estimated 75 percent of the state's minority population rejected "Initiative 27," a constitutional amendment requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, while only about 17 percent of white voters went against the proposal, according to a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.

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Personhood

'Personhood' Movement May Be Coming To A State Near You

Jillian Rayfield | December 7, 2011, 4:36AM

Anti-abortion demonstrators in Washington, DC.

Members of the "personhood" movement may have failed to pass a ballot measure in Mississippi, but they're not giving up -- and are redoubling their efforts in a number of states across the country.

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Abortion

Mississippi Votes Down Amendment To Define Personhood At Fertilization

Eric Kleefeld | November 8, 2011, 10:57PM

The state of Mississippi has now provided the answer to an interesting political test: How severe must a proposed piece of pro-life legislation be, for it to fail in the Deep South?

Voters on Tuesday rejected ballot Initiative 26, which would have defined personhood as beginning at fertilization. With 63% of the vote reporting, the 'No' position is leading by a margin of 57%-43%, and has been projected as the winner by the Associated Press.

The proposal, initiated through petitions by pro-life activists, would have outlawed not only abortion but many forms of birth control that can prevent the uterine implantation of a fertilized egg.

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Mississippi

Mississippi To Vote On 'Personhood' Initiative That Could Also Ban Birth Control

Jillian Rayfield | November 8, 2011, 6:00AM

Mississippians will vote on a "personhood" ballot amendment Tuesday that would define life as beginning at the moment of fertilization, which would ban abortions as well as some types of birth control.

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Sons of Confederate Veterans

Confederate Group In Mississippi Proposes License Plates To Honor KKK Member

David Taintor | February 11, 2011, 8:31AM

Civil War reenactors in Columbia, S.C.

A Confederate group in Mississippi wants to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War ... from now until 2015.

The Mississippi Division of Sons of Confederate Veterans is proposing a series of license plates to commemorate the war, with a new one being introduced every year, the Associated Press reports.

One of those designs -- slated for a 2014 release -- commemorates Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who served as a Ku Klux Klan grand wizard after the war.

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Haley Barbour

Barbour Mixes Business With Pleasure When Using State Plane

Ryan J. Reilly | December 27, 2010, 9:12AM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Gov. Haley Barbour has traveled extensively on a Mississippi state plane and has mixed state business with both pleasure and national politics, a Politico review of the flight manifest since 2007 shows.

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Haley Barbour

Barbour's Brother, While Yazoo City Mayor: Blacks 'Not Listenin To White People Like They Used To'

Rachel Slajda | December 21, 2010, 12:10PM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R), when defending the Citizens Council in his hometown of Yazoo City, painted himself as oblivious to politics and the civil rights movement as a teenager. When Martin Luther King Jr. came to town, he said, he and his friends paid more attention to the girls than the reverend.

But Barbour's older brother, Jeppie Barbour, was very aware of politics and the civil rights movement, as he was mayor for several years starting in 1968. As the Weekly Standard profile noted, that meant Jeppie Barbour was in office during the court-ordered but extremely peaceful integration of the city's schools, an integration the elder Barbour saw as inevitable.

It was a question about that non-violent integration that prompted Haley Barbour's controversial comments, as he credited the segregationist Citizens Councils for that peacefulness. Barbour today issued a statement backing up a bit, saying it was the town leadership that kept integration peaceful but that "their vehicle, called the 'Citizens Council,' is totally indefensible."

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Council of Conservative Citizens

Barbour Has History With Modern Incarnation Of Segregationist Group He Praised

Rachel Slajda | December 21, 2010, 10:59AM

Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS)

Today we'll be looking at putting together some context for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's defense of the pro-segregationist Citizens Councils of the 1950s and '60s South.

Dave Weigel over at Slate points out that Barbour has a history with the Council of Conservative Citizens, a descendant group of the Citizens Councils. In 2003 Barbour went to the "Black Hawk Barbecue" to court the group while running for Mississippi governor.

We did a little more digging, and, turns out, it caused some controversy at the time. People called for Barbour to have his photo removed from the group's web site. Barbour refused.

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First Amendment

Lawyer Jailed For Refusing To Say The Pledge of Allegiance

Rachel Slajda | October 8, 2010, 9:53AM

A lawyer in Tupelo, Miss., was thrown in jail Wednesday for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance in court.

When the judge asked the court to rise and say the Pledge, the lawyer, Danny Lampley, stood but did not say the words. According to local reports, Lampley, known for taking on First Amendment cases, has done so before.

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