A federal appeals court has ruled, again, that members of Jackson’s airport authority can’t sue over a state takeover of the city’s airport.

The court overruled a lower federal court decision, and ordered it to dismiss members of the airport authority in a lawsuit to block a state takeover of the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport.

“For the fourth time, Mississippi state legislators appeal a district court order compelling discovery in an eight-year-old dispute over control of the Jackson-Medgar Evers International Airport,” Judge Edith Jones wrote in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals opinion issued Tuesday. “For numerous reasons that have percolated throughout this litigation, we conclude that the current plaintiffs, members of the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, lack … standing to sue. Groundhog Day has come to an end. Accordingly, we vacate the order of the district court and remand with instructions to dismiss.”

Jackson’s mayor and city council remain as plaintiffs, and the authority members could appeal Tuesday’s order, but the federal appeals court has appeared to make clear it doesn’t believe the challenge should be in federal court.

“This suit is nothing more than a political dispute between state and local governments over control of an airport and the land around it,” the court wrote Tuesday. “One side has dragged that fight into federal court by tricking it out in equal protection colors. That won’t fly.”

The Jackson mayor’s office, city attorney and City Council responded to the ruling with a statement. The city said the court appeared to overstep its bounds in its written opinion.

“Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered an order which held that various members of the Legislature who played roles in passing Senate Bill 2162 (which would eliminate JMAA and the city’s role in appointing JMAA Commissioners) could continue to refuse to comply with subpoenas issued by JMAA commissioners in 2017,” the city statement said. “The Fifth Circuit ruled that those commissioners never had the right to pursue this litigation and dismissed their claims. The city was not part of that appeal and will continue to advance its claims under the state and federal constitutions that SB 2162 amounts to an unconstitutional takeover of the city’s authority to maintain and manage the airport.

“The city will be seeking a clarification of the Fifth Circuit’s Order, as the order appears to instruct the District Court to dismiss the entire suit, which would overreach the Fifth Circuit’s authority. A bedrock principle of the law is that an appellate court only has authority to rule on the issues before it. Here, the only issue before the court was the legislators continuing efforts to avoid the subpoenas issued by the JMAA commissioners six years ago. The city continues to have viable claims under state and federal law, none of which were before the Fifth Circuit, and none of which should have been impacted by the court’s ruling. The City of Jackson intends to continue to advocate for the rights of its citizens and elected officials to manage its own property, including the Jackson–Medgar Wiley Evers International Airport.” 

The state Legislature in 2016 passed a measure that would abolish the Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and replace it with a regional authority with members from the cirt of Jackson and Madison and Rankin counties. Currently, the Jackson mayor and council appoint JMAA’s members.

Under the new regional authority, the governor would appoint five members including one each from lists supplied by the Jackson City Council, Madison supervisors and Rankin supervisors. The lieutenant governor would appoint one and the mayor of Jackson one. The adjutant general of the Mississippi National Guard and director of the Mississippi Development Authority would also serve on the nine-member authority.

City leaders and Jackson’s lawmakers have opposed the move, and the city and authority in its litigation claimed the move was racially motivated by a group of white lawmakers and violated Jackson citizens’ voting rights. They point out state leaders are treating Jackson differently — an argument city leaders have also made on the state’s takeover of policing and courts in the downtown Jackson area and efforts by lawmakers to take over the city’s troubled water system, which is now under federal control.

U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves has ruled in favor of the city and JMAA several times in the airport litigation, but then has been reversed by the Fifth Circuit.

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include joint statements from Jackson’s mayor’s office, city attorney and City Council.