www.LC.org

Jackson, MS – Liberty Counsel has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Mississippi seeking an emergency injunction on behalf of Personhood Mississippi, an organization working to prevent abortions by amending the state Constitution to include the unborn in the definition of a person. The organization has gathered more than 85,000 signatures on a petition in support of the amendment. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has interpreted the law to require an earlier deadline that will prevent many signatures on the petition from being counted, which could have the effect of keeping the proposed amendment off the ballot.

The Mississippi Constitution and state law give individuals one full year to gather signatures for a petition, during which they must garner at least 89,285 signatures of registered voters, and the signatures must be certified by the circuit clerks in each county. For Personhood Mississippi, that one-year period ends on Saturday, February 13, 2010. The law also provides that the deadline for filing the petition with the Secretary of State is 90 days before the start of the next legislative session. Thus, Personhood Mississippi should have until October 2010 to file its petition.

Mr. Hood, however, has arbitrarily shortened the filing deadline from October to February 13, thereby forcing the petitioners to rush to persuade the clerks to hasten their certification and inevitably causing hundreds of valid signatures to be left out of the final count. This strained interpretation of the law may cause Personhood Mississippi to fall short of the required number of signatures and prevent the measure from being on the ballot. It will undoubtedly result in many voters being denied the right to have their voices heard on the crucial issue of protection of the lives of innocent unborn children.

Liberty Counsel is seeking to ensure that every signature is counted and that each person’s voice is heard and to protect Personhood Mississippi’s constitutional right to place its amendment on the ballot. This lawsuit is particularly important because Mississippi is poised to become the first truly pro-life state in the nation.

Steve Crampton, Vice President of Legal Affairs and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel commented: “It is unfortunate that the Attorney General has chosen to usurp the role of the legislature and rewrite the deadline for filing petitions to amend the state Constitution. His actions have violated the constitutional rights of Personhood Mississippi and untold hundreds of Mississippi citizens whose voices will not be heard, much as the silent screams of the unborn that this effort seeks to protect have gone unheard for so many years.”

Receive these News Releases via RSS 

Follow Liberty Counsel on and