by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
July 22, 2025

A panel of House Republicans on Monday night chose New York Republican Rep. Andrew Garbarino as chairman of the Homeland Security Committee.

Reps. Michael Guest of Mississippi, Clay Higgins of Louisiana and Carlos Gimenez of Florida were in the running for the top Homeland Security spot.

Guest will continue to lead the House Ethics Committee and the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement. 

“I am looking forward to working with Chairman Garbarino to continue to secure our border and advance President Trump’s America First Agenda,” Guest told Mississippi Today in a statement. 

Guest, who has represented Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, previously said that if the homeland security panel had selected him as the new chair, he would have worked closely with Trump and that had unique experience to lead the committee. 

Before joining Congress, Guest was the elected district attorney in Madison and Rankin counties. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Mississippi U.S. Rep. Guest will stay at helm of Ethics after Garbarino chosen for Homeland Security appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Right

This article reports on Republican Representative Michael Guest remaining chair of the House Ethics Committee after another Republican, Andrew Garbarino, was chosen for the Homeland Security Committee. The coverage is factual and focused on committee appointments and political roles, with some positive framing around Guest’s experience and alignment with former President Trump’s agenda. The language is neutral but leans slightly center-right due to the absence of critical analysis and the positive emphasis on conservative priorities, reflecting the ideological perspective of the individuals involved rather than editorial bias in the reporting itself.

by Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
July 21, 2025

U.S. Rep. Michael Guest of Mississippi is campaigning to lead the House Homeland Security Committee, according to the congressional news website Punchbowl News. 

Guest, a Republican who has represented the state’s 3rd Congressional District since 2019, is one of four GOP members competing to lead the influential committee, according to the news outlet. 

The House Republican Steering Committee will meet on Monday night to pick the next Homeland Security Committee. 

The committee chairmanship opened up because the committee’s previous chairman, U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, announced he would resign from Congress as soon as the House passed President Donald Trump’s latest spending bill, which he signed into law on July 4. 

“I look forward to the possible opportunity to work alongside President Trump as Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security,” Guest told Mississippi Today in a statement. “As the former Vice Chairman of the Committee and the current Chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, I have unique leadership experience to bring to this role.”

The Mississippi Republican currently leads the House Ethics Committee. During his time chairing the bipartisan committee, he has successfully authored and pushed for a resolution to expel former New York Congressman George Santos from the House chamber. 

He also led the Ethics Committee during its investigation and subsequent report into the alleged misconduct of former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. Gaetz resigned from Congress before the committee’s work concluded on Gaetz, which meant the committee no longer had jurisdiction to investigate the Florida Republican.  

President Donald Trump in 2024 nominated Gaetz to become attorney general, which prompted bipartisan pressure for the committee to release its report on the Florida congressman, even though Gaetz was no longer a member of Congress. Trump eventually withdrew Gaetz’s nomination. 

The committee eventually voted to release the report, but Guest objected to the decision and wrote that it deviated from the committee’s longstanding traditions.  

Should Guest become the new House Homeland Security Chairman, it would mean two Mississippians would become the top party leaders on the committee. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson is currently the top Democrat on the committee. 

Thompson served as chairman of the committee from 2007 to 2011, and from 2019 to 2023.

Before Guest became a member of Congress, he was a district attorney in Madison and Rankin counties.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Mississippi's U.S. Rep. Michael Guest in running for Homeland Security chair  appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Centrist

The article provides a straightforward report on Rep. Michael Guest’s bid to chair the House Homeland Security Committee. It includes factual information about his past roles, accomplishments, and connections to former President Trump without using charged or emotionally suggestive language. The piece also notes bipartisan aspects of Guest’s record, such as his leadership on the Ethics Committee and his role in high-profile investigations. It mentions both Republican and Democratic figures without portraying either side in a particularly positive or negative light, maintaining a neutral tone throughout.

by Devna Bose and Taylor Vance, Mississippi Today
July 21, 2025

A federal judge has temporarily paused enforcement of the state law that prohibits diversity, equity and inclusion programs from Mississippi public schools and universities.

U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate on Sunday approved the request for a temporary restraining order sought by a coalition of civil rights and legal organizations on behalf of students, parents and educators.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mississippi Center for Justice are representing the plaintiffs, who filed the lawsuit alongside other groups on June 9 against the state’s education boards. Wingate heard arguments on June 24 from top lawyers from both organizations, as well as Special Assistant Attorney General Rex Shannon, who represented the state-agency defendants. 

Shannon objected to the temporary restraining order in court and argued the plaintiffs didn’t have legal standing to file the lawsuit. He also admitted his office was limited in the arguments it could make because of the litigation’s compressed schedule.

The order is in effect for 14 days, and allows Wingate to extend it for an additional 14 days. Next, the plaintiffs plan to seek a preliminary injunction — a longer-lasting court order that would continue to freeze the state law. 

The state could appeal Wingate’s decision to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, though it’s unclear if they will do so.

“In this Court’s eye, these accounts appear to reflect a broad, chilling effect across public institutions and community organizations,” Wingate wrote in his order, of individual reports about the impact of the bill. “The evidence, at this stage, demonstrates a clear and ongoing deprivation of constitutional rights in a manner not compensable by money damages — thus warranting injunctive relief.”

In April, legislators passed House Bill 1193, which prevents public schools from creating diversity, equity and inclusion offices, engaging in “divisive” concepts and hiring people based on their race, sex, color or national origin. The State Board of Education and the Institutions of Higher Learning recently approved policies that create a complaint and investigation process for violations to the law. 

Local school boards have to create their own policies, too, which MCJ attorney Rob McDuff argued in court would be a lengthy and arduous process. 

“This statute would throw our schools into chaos if it’s allowed to go forward,” he said. “As we approach the fall semester, teachers are preparing their lesson plans … people need to know that at least for the moment, enforcement of this law is going to stop while the court further considers the issues.”

Joshua Tom, ACLU of Mississippi’s legal director, said the law’s vagueness was unconstitutional. 

“‘Engage’ is not defined,” he said. “How does a teacher or student ‘engage’? Do a mandatory reading? Talk about it in class? What if they go on a field trip and one of the concepts is introduced. Is that engaging? It’s not clear.”

He also noted that the statute was already making an impact — in an effort to comply with the law, the University of Mississippi withdrew its funding from Oxford’s annual Pride Parade a few weeks ago and prohibited university departments from marching in their capacity as professors, he said. 

Professors and school officials have publicly criticized the bill and asked for clarification about its enforcement. One top Jackson Public Schools official submitted questions asking if celebrating Black History Month or if one of the district’s core values, “equity,” would lead to compliance violations.

Both parties will be back in federal court on August 5 to make their cases about a preliminary injunction.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post Federal judge temporarily blocks Mississippi's new DEI ban appeared first on mississippitoday.org

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article from *Mississippi Today* maintains a factual tone but gives notable space and emphasis to the perspectives and arguments of civil rights groups and legal organizations opposing the DEI ban. It quotes extensively from ACLU and Mississippi Center for Justice representatives while offering less detail from the state’s defense. The framing highlights concerns about constitutional rights and the chilling effect of the law, signaling sympathy with the plaintiffs’ viewpoint. While it does report the state’s legal position, the focus and tone suggest a modest Center-Left bias in presentation.