If the Mississippi Legislature didn’t write ambiguous laws, what would attorneys and judges do for a living?
For one thing, legal minds might not have to ponder questions like, “What is a year?”
A majority of the Mississippi Supreme Court waded into the issue this past week in a dispute over the timing of a special election for the U.S. Senate.
Gov. Haley Barbour prevailed in his argument. This time.
The court’s 7-2 majority said the state law by which Barbour called a Nov. 4 special election “is silent ... with respect to the specific issue.”
The specific issue, the court said, was what’s to be done when a senator resigns in a year when there is a general election but the election has already taken place.
The Supreme Court did not find that Barbour was right or wrong; neither did it say Attorney General Jim Hood was right or wrong.
The court decided the Legislature had left the law’s interpretation to the governor.
The court said legislators could rewrite the law to make it less ambiguous.
The Legislature is unlikely to get involved. Legislators write most laws to apply to future events. They rarely try to make laws retrospective — to make past events legal.
Elections issues deal with a fundamental right of citizenship.
Some lawmakers called for change when Democrat Ronnie Musgrove and Republican Mike Parker tied for the electoral vote in the 1999 governor’s race and the election was kicked to the House in January 2000. Musgrove, who had won the popular vote, was elected.
Legislators did nothing to restructure the electoral process after that.
Attorneys for Barbour and Hood wrangled over what a “year” meant. Hood said a year is a calendar year. Barbour said it is a 365-day period that doesn’t have to start on Jan. 1.
Mississippi law says that after receiving official notice of a U.S. Senate vacancy, the governor has 10 days to announce an election to fill the seat. That election must be held within 90 days of the announcement, unless the vacancy occurs during a year when “there shall be held a general state or congressional election.”
Barbour said 365 days began when Sen. Trent Lott resigned, with five years remaining in his six-year term. Barbour reasoned that since the 2007 general election had passed, and the next one was Nov. 4, 2008. He set the special election for that date.
Hood said although Lott’s resignation came after the 2007 general election, it did occur in the same year. He said an election should have been set within 90 days of when the vacancy was announced.
A Hinds County judge ruled for Hood. Barbour appealed.
State law defines “year” as a “calendar year” unless the statute specifically says otherwise.
However, the Supreme Court’s majority said the court ruled in a 1924 case that when the same term is used in different ways in a law, the clearest definition should apply.
The majority said the senatorial vacancy law used the terms “year,” “a year” and “one year.” The majority said year, in this case, meant 365 days, and the next general election would be within that period.
The court’s majority said Barbour’s decision to set the election for Nov. 4 is one “permissible” interpretation of the law. The majority did not say that interpretation would apply to every case that comes before the court.
Two dissenting justices said Barbour’s interpretation was no better than anyone else’s. They said deferring to Barbour did not resolve the question.
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Miss. Supreme Court wades into quandary and Barbour prevails — this time
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