{"id":122517,"date":"2022-09-07T17:52:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-07T22:52:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=122517"},"modified":"2022-09-07T17:52:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T22:52:42","slug":"judge-denies-state-auditors-motion-to-dismiss-defamation-case-by-ole-miss-professor-james-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/judge-denies-state-auditors-motion-to-dismiss-defamation-case-by-ole-miss-professor-james-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Denies State Auditor\u2019s Motion to Dismiss Defamation Case by Ole Miss Professor James Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A Hinds County Circuit Court<\/strong> judge has denied State Auditor<\/strong> Shad White<\/strong>\u2019s motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit brought by University of Mississippi<\/strong> Professor James Thomas<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his January 2021 motion, White alleged he could not be sued for defamation for allegations he made that Thomas, by participating in a two-day event called a \u201cScholar Strike,\u201d violated state law prohibiting public employees from striking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White argued that as a state executive officer, he is entitled to a legal doctrine known as \u201cabsolute immunity\u201d \u2013 the complete protection from liability for actions committed in the course of his official duties \u2013 even though he acknowledged no Mississippi court has considered the issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judge E. Faye Peterson<\/strong> was not persuaded, writing that Mississippi <\/strong>law is clear state officers have \u201cno absolute privilege for any and all comments,\u201d only those made during legislative, judicial and military proceedings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHence, Shad White is not entitled to absolute immunity for any and all statements which he makes as a state governmental official,\u201d Peterson wrote in a September 2 order. \u201cThat blanket theory of immunity has not been recognized by our courts, nor does it comport with the laws of this state.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peterson added that \u201cto the continued detriment\u201d of White\u2019s defense, Mississippi courts have found that immunity does not extend \u201cto fraud, malice, libel, slander, defamation or any criminal offense.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peterson declined to issue a declaratory judgment just yet on whether or not Thomas\u2019 participation in the Scholar Strike actually violated state law \u2013 a key argument in his case for defamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fletcher Freeman, a spokesperson for the state auditor\u2019s office, said White and his counsel from the Mississippi attorney general\u2019s office will \u201ccontinue defense against this case.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAuditor White absolutely has a right to tell people when they misspend money, which is what Thomas\u2019 lawsuit is about,\u201d Freeman wrote in an email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit filed in December 2020 centers on White\u2019s claims that Thomas participated in an \u201cillegal\u201d work stoppage on September 8 and September 9, 2020, and thus violated state law. White sent Thomas a letter demanding he repay $1,912 \u2013 his salary and interest \u2013 for the two days and another letter asking the University of Mississippi chancellor to consider termination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas\u2019 initial complaint alleged this was defamation in part because it was false of White to claim that the Scholar Strike was illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to state code<\/a>, a strike is an action taken \u201cfor the purpose of inducing, influencing or coercing a change in the conditions, compensation, rights, privileges or obligations of public employment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas\u2019 participation in the Scholar Strike was intended to highlight racism and injustice in the United States<\/strong>, not to change his working conditions, according to the initial complaint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShad White falsely claimed that Professor Thomas violated the law against public employee strikes when it was clear to anyone who could read that he didn\u2019t,\u201d said Rob McDuff<\/strong>, an attorney with the Mississippi Center for Justice<\/strong> who is representing Thomas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

White\u2019s motion to dismiss argued that a declaratory judgment <\/strong>would be improper because \u201cthere are no ongoing legal relations between the parties to be clarified or settled.\u201d Furthermore, it would \u201cset a precedent inimical to the orderly and efficient disposition of Auditor demands.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis will effectively create a need for expedited review (and potential defense) by the Attorney General of all Auditor demands referred for non-payment, regardless of whether the Attorney General may otherwise have ultimately elected not to pursue a given claim\u2014an inefficient use of State resources,\u201d the motion states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas\u2019 lawsuit does not ask for a set amount of monetary damages and says a jury should decide in the event White is found liable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the jury says he should pay one dollar, that is fine,\u201d the complaint says. \u201cIf the jury orders payment of more money, that is fine too.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article<\/a> first appeared on Mississippi Today<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Molly Minta<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Mississippi Auditor Shad White attends Cindy Hyde-Smith’s watch party at the Westin Jackson Wednesday, November 27, 2018.\u00a0Credit:\u00a0Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today\/ Report for America<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
University of Mississippi sociology professor James Thomas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Hinds County Circuit Court judge has denied State Auditor Shad White\u2019s motion to dismiss a defamation lawsuit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123472,"featured_media":122522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17316],"tags":[22386,22383,22269,5,22388,22389,22387,22385,21620,22384,655],"class_list":["post-122517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mississippi","tag-e-faye-peterson","tag-hinds-county-circuit-court","tag-james-thomas","tag-mississippi","tag-mississippi-center-for-justice","tag-mississippi-today","tag-rob-mcduff","tag-scholar-strike","tag-shad-white","tag-state-auditor","tag-university-of-mississippi"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/ShadWhite.webp?fit=2000%2C1366&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123472"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}