Two candidates vying for a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court have starkly different records on key issues. Conservative Republican Mississippi Sen. Jenifer Branning is hoping to unseat moderate Justice Jim Kitchens in a runoff election for his Supreme Court District 1 seat on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024.
Supreme Court District 1 includes voters located mostly in central Mississippi, including in Bolivar, Claiborne, Copiah, Hinds, Holmes, Humphreys, Issaquena, Jefferson, Kemper, Lauderdale, Leake, Madison, Neshoba, Newton, Noxubee, Rankin, Scott, Sharkey, Sunflower, Warren, Washington and Yazoo counties.
Kitchens and Branning’s Records Diverge Medical Cannabis
In 2021, Justice Jim Kitchens disagreed with the conservative majority’s decision overturning a voter-approved medical marijuana program and nullifying the entire citizen-led ballot initiative system. The ballot initiative system allowed citizens to put issues on the ballot after gathering a requisite number of signatures from each congressional district.
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Voters in Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 will choose between Justice Jim Kitchens and Sen. Jenifer Branning in a runoff on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. Graphic courtesy State of Mississippi Judiciary
” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?fit=191%2C300&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?fit=510%2C800&ssl=1″ src=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?resize=510%2C800&ssl=1″ alt class=”wp-image-49761″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?w=510&ssl=1 510w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?resize=191%2C300&ssl=1 191w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?resize=400%2C627&ssl=1 400w, https://i0.wp.com/www.mississippifreepress.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/supreme-court-districts-map.jpg?w=370&ssl=1 370w” sizes=”(max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px”>Voters in Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 will choose between Justice Jim Kitchens and Sen. Jenifer Branning in a runoff on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024. Graphic courtesy State of Mississippi Judiciary
Mississippi voters decided by a 68% to 31% vote in 2020 to adopt Initiative 65, an expansive medical-marijuana program that citizens first began gathering signatures to put on the ballot in 2018. The mayor of Madison, Miss., Mary Hawkins Butler, sued to stop the program because she said she did not want “pot shops” in her city.
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A majority of the court agreed to her request, noting that Section 273 of the Mississippi Constitution, adopted in 1992, says residents must gather signatures from each of the state’s five congressional districts. But Mississippi lost a congressional district after the 2000 Census
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