Plaintiffs claim Madison County sheriff’s deputy routinely targets African Americans for traffic stop stops. The case was reassigned by Reeves, an Obama appointee following the retirement Senior U.S. district Judge William H. Barbour Jr. In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit, alleging that the sheriff’s department targeted black communities using tactics like checkpoints. roadblocks. warrantless home searches. The ACLU claims that Madison County’s black population is nearly five times more likely than Madison County’s white residents, despite the fact that Madison County has only 38% of its population being black. Barbour was also the judge in the case. He presided over Dockery v. Hall last year, which challenged the conditions of the private-run East Mississippi Correctional Facility. This case is still pending. Reeves ruled that Mississippi’s ban on abortion for 15 weeks was unconstitutional. Reeves also ruled against a controversial law on “religious freedom” that the Legislature passed in 2016. He also overturned the state’s 2015 ban on same-sex marriage.