By Rupert Howell

A federal judge says he is not prepared to issue a temporary restraining order that would postpone upcoming supervisor elections, or extend qualifying deadlines in Panola County, as sought in a suit by the Panola County Chapter of the NAACP.

Among other issues, the suit claims that supervisors failed to redistrict the county’s supervisor districts to comply with the one-person one-vote principle of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and obtain pre-clearance of any new redistricting plan prior to the March 1 candidate qualifying deadline.

The redistricting process is under way but has  yet to be completed as census figures only recently became available. Several counties asked and received extensions to their qualifying deadlines from the Mississippi Legislature. Several counties that didn’t ask for extensions have now been cited in similar suits.

Mills stated that skepticism on the issue arises as the Panola County case is merely one of several containing similar allegations filed by different branches of the NAACP at the same time. Thirteen counties are now facing similar lawsuits according to the Associated Press.

“This raises doubts in this court’s mind as to whether each of these cases truly represents a case in need of immediate injunctive relief, or whether they instead represent a more generalized effort to exercise political leverage throughout the state.

“As always, the truth may lie somewhere in between,” Mills wrote.

“The court sees no reason why the issues in this case cannot be resolved as part of the normal political process, in time for the 2011 Board of Supervisor elections this fall,” Chief Judge Michael P. Mills wrote in his order.

The Chief Judge also wrote that the political process should be given a chance to work before the court considers intervening judicially.

“But it does direct defendants to carefully consider the issues raised in this case and to proceed accordingly in light of the requirements of U.S. Supreme Court authority and applicable statutory provisions,” Mills added.

The suit names as defendants Panola County Supervisors, the executive committees of the Democratic and Republican Parties, Panola County Election Commissioners and Circuit Clerk Joe Reid.

State Attorney General Jim Hood intervened joining defendants and answered the suit asking that the case be dismissed.