Mississippi GOP’s ban on press access to caucus meetings upheld

Mississippi Free Press reporter Nick Judin was denied access to a Republican caucus meeting in the Mississippi House of Representatives at the Capitol building in Jackson on March 14, 2022.

The access denial survived multiple subsequent rulings and appeals, one of which in February 2025 determined that the state Legislature itself was not subject to the state’s Open Meetings Act.

Journalists covering the Legislature as a whole need a credential for floor access, Judin told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, and the public has access to the gallery during regular sessions.

He added that the outlet had “long known that the House GOP was holding secret caucus meetings.”

Judin wrote in the Mississippi Free Press that the outlet had requested access to the caucus meetings for nearly two months starting in early 2022, including by contacting House Speaker Philip Gunn’s director of communications, but didn’t receive a response.

Then, after learning when and where one was being held in March 2022, Judin attempted to attend, entering a room in the Mississippi State Capitol where the House’s Republican lawmakers — who at the time held a large enough majority in the body to make up a full quorum — were meeting.

Shortly after entering, staffers noticed Judin was there and halted the meeting. He told them he was attending under the Open Meetings Act, but the staffers and Gunn said the law did not apply.

As Judin told the Tracker, because Republicans hold such a wide majority in the House, caucus meetings — rather than sessions held on the House floor — are where policy debates are held and the fate of legislation is decided.

“The problem is that with its overwhelming majority, the House GOP can effectively use caucus meetings to whip votes and determine the outcome of legislation before it is even discussed in public,” Judin said. “This ensures the people’s business is done behind closed doors, in flagrant violation of Mississippi transparency law.”

On April 12, Judin and the Mississippi Free Press filed a complaint against Gunn and the House Republican Caucus with the Mississippi Ethics Commission, alleging that they had violated the Open Meetings Act.

The complaint argued that the caucus meetings were covered by the act, noting that it required “that public business be performed in an open and public manner, and that citizens be advised of and be aware of the performance of public officials and the deliberations and decisions that go into the making of public policy.”

The Mississippi Ethics Commission ruled 5-3 on Dec. 14, 2022, that the Legislature as a whole was not a public body and therefore not subject to the Open Meetings Act, rejecting a recommendation by its director to side with the news outlet.

Stephen Burrow, a commissioner who voted with the majority, told the Mississippi Free Press that while he agreed in principle that caucus meetings should be open, that ultimately wasn’t the question at issue.

“What is before us is whether or not the Legislature chose to include itself within the definition of a public body, and it’s very plain to me that while they included (legislative) committees, they excluded other committees from this for whatever reason. When the Open Meetings Act was passed in 1975, they chose not to include themselves,” Burrow said.

Burrow also noted that the Legislature may have excluded itself from the act because it was already required to be open under the state’s constitution, but it was not the commission’s job to rule on that issue.

The Mississippi Free Press and Judin appealed the decision to the Hinds County Chancery Court. Judge Dewayne Thomas upheld the Ethics Commission’s decision on Feb. 18, 2025, citing the Open Meetings Act’s definition of a public body and noting that it did not expressly include the Mississippi House of Representatives.

“We are obviously disappointed in this ruling, but not particularly surprised. There is a continuing breakdown in both public trust in the press and governmental transparency and press access at the national and local level,” Judin said, adding, “These rulings encourage public officials to conceal their public work from the public’s eyes, and in my opinion, this obscurity is the perfect soil for fraud and abuse.”