State Supreme Court says judges can't ban firearms from courthouses

The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled chancery judges in Lowndes and other counties in their district don't have the authority to ban firearms from courthouses.

In 2011, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law that allows those with enhanced carry permits who have voluntarily completed a safe handling and use of firearms course to carry their weapons inside a courthouse, but not inside a courtroom.

Chancery judges in the 14th Chancery District, which includes Lowndes, Clay, Chickasaw, Noxubee, Oktibbeha and Webster counties, filed an administrative order banning firearms within 200 feet of a courtroom door.

The question was whether judges can impose their own orders banning guns in courthouses in the wake of the state law? The state Supreme Court says no.

"The chancellors may have good and noble intentions, and their concerns are well-founded," Justice Mike Randolph wrote in the majority opinion. "However, their personal fears and opinions do not trump, and cannot negate, constitutional guarantees. The ultimate outcome of today's issue is reserved for the Legislature, not to be commandeered by unilateral local judicial proclamations."

The state high court ruling still allows judges to ban guns in courtrooms.

Writing in dissenting opinion, Justice Dawn Beam, a former chancery judge, said "the majority's holding today that judges are without authority to control the security outside their courtrooms renders a sad day for justice in Mississippi."

"I have witnessed firsthand the volatility that embodies the courthouse in situations where emotions are running high in even the most reasonable and steadfast citizens among us," Beam said.

The case generated a lot of interest with the National Rifle Association filing a brief in support of Ward while many judges across the state filed briefs in support of the Lowndes chancery judges. 

Randolph said in the opinion issued Thursday that the law of Mississippi is clear: Enhanced-carry licensees are permitted to possess a firearm in courthouses.

Firearm instructor Rick Ward filed the appeal to the state Supreme Court. Ward said he has an enhanced firearm carry permit but has been denied the right to carry his firearm in courthouses in the 14th Chancery District.

Ward, through his attorney Thomas Payne, argues that judges took an oath to follow the laws and constitution of the state of Mississippi and the United States and they are knowingly violating the law.

Ward has asked the state Supreme Court to prohibit these chancery judges from banning firearms.

But the judges say: “The Legislature has every right to pass laws that in their wisdom are necessary and prudent for the State of Mississippi and its citizens. However, when such a law impedes or interferes with the provinces of the two other branches of government, it cannot be said to be within their constitutional right to do so without restriction. We, as judges, are the point persons in the delivery of dispute resolution. We are not casual observers, driven by a political need or want. We know best the impact on our sworn duty and in keeping with the oath we took. You cannot separate courthouses from courtrooms any more than you can separate the heart from the body.”

Then- Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, who authored 2016 legislation to clarify the meaning of courtrooms, said it was done after some judges filed orders to include parking lots in prohibiting firearms. Gipson is now state agriculture commissioner.

The legislation, which died in a Senate committee in 2016, said a courtroom means the actual room in which judicial proceedings occur, including jury room, witness room, judge’s chamber, office housing the judge’s staff, or similar room, but doesn’t mean hallways, courtroom entrances, courthouse grounds, lobbies, corridors, or other areas within a courthouse that are generally open to the public for transaction of business outside of an active judicial proceeding.

The chancery judges in the 14th District said in their order that “to allow a person to carry a concealed weapon to a courtroom door poses a threat that cannot be deterred before great bodily harm or death could be inflicted inside the courtroom.” 

Ward said he asked the judges to rescind their order, but  they dismissed his motion without giving him a hearing.

Ward then filed his petition with the Mississippi Supreme Court.

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