'Personhood' Group Plans Lawsuit Over Signature Collection For Miss. Ballot Measure

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 04 Feb 2010 - 3:00 PDT

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The antiabortion-rights group Personhood Mississippi said it will file a federal lawsuit to clarify a law on gathering signatures to qualify a measure for the state ballot, the AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald reports. The group has been gathering signatures for the past year in support of a ballot initiative that would ask voters whether the state constitution should be amended to define "personhood" as beginning at the "moment of fertilization, cloning or the functional equivalent thereof."

Personhood Mississippi must gather about 89,000 signatures by Feb. 13 for the measure to be placed on the 2010 ballot. The group says it has more than 80,000 signatures and is on track to meet the deadline.

Mississippi law states that a person or group has one year to gather the required number of signatures. However, a nonbinding opinion issued in 1996 by the Mississippi attorney general's office suggests the signatures must be certified by county circuit clerks and turned in by the deadline, the AP/Sun-Herald reports.

Personhood Mississippi attorney Stephen Crampton said that the state constitution makes clear that there is one full year to collect signatures and that the group should be able to collect signatures up to the deadline and then have them certified. According to Crampton, it could take several weeks for some circuit courts to certify the names, which would mean that there is not really an entire year to gather support.

Crampton said he would file a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Jackson unless Jim Hood (D), the state's attorney general, issued a new opinion by Tuesday. Hood's review is "unlikely" to happen by then, the AP/Sun-Herald reports. Attorneys in Hood's office said the 1996 opinion issued by former Attorney General Mike Moore is correct (Mohr, AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald, 2/2).

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