Mississippi’s Supreme Court has weighed in on a dispute between Attorney General Lynn Fitch and State Auditor Shad White over whose office has the sole authority pursue lawsuits in cases involving the alleged misspending of public money.
The state’s high court ruled Thursday that Fitch’s team is responsible for litigating such cases, and that White’s office lacks the jurisdiction to do so. The decision reversed a 2024 ruling by the Hinds County Chancery Court that denied the attorney general plenary authority over lawsuits to recoup misspent funds.
“We render judgment here that the attorney general possesses, and the auditor lacks, the authority to prosecute and to manage litigation seeking the recovery of state money,” Justice Jenifer Branning wrote on behalf of herself and six of her colleagues.
Only seven of the nine state Supreme Court justices ruled in this case. The ones presiding over the case ruled in unanimous consensus.
The dispute between White and Fitch, both of whom are potential gubernatorial candidates in the 2027 election cycle, began after White attempted to sue ex-NFL star Brett Favre for his alleged role in misspending taxpayer dollars connected to the largest welfare scandal in Mississippi history. The scandal entailed hundreds of millions of dollars intended for the state’s poorest residents allegedly being abused by people in power.
Fitch took White to court shortly after he filed the suit, challenging his ability to sue on behalf of the state of Mississippi, though the auditor maintained that state law granted him the authority to pursue lawsuits like the one against Favre.
Fitch’s team has already taken dozens of defendants in the welfare scandal to court, with Favre being one of them. White’s discontentment surrounded the attorney general refusing to sue Favre to collect just over $700,000 in what the state auditor believes to be unpaid interest on money he had paid back to the state in connection with the scandal.
“Now that the court has ruled that Lynn Fitch has the sole authority to file suit to get misspent taxpayer money back, I can only assume the Attorney General will now change course and begin to aggressively fight in court for the recovery of all the welfare money,” White stated after the Supreme Court’s ruling. “Maybe she will fight as hard to do that as she fought to stop me from recovering the money. Mississippi taxpayers deserve nothing less.”
Fitch’s office, in response to a request for comment from SuperTalk Mississippi News, pointed to a portion of the ruling where justices wrote, “We find a common-sense separation of duties as prescribed by the Legislature — that the auditor will audit and that the attorney general will litigate.”
Thursday’s decision came amid an ongoing feud between the elected officials. Recently, Fitch withdrew her office’s legal representation of White in a pair of defamation cases, one of which was initiated by Favre, after the auditor allegedly bashed her handling of the welfare scandal in a book he wrote on the subject.
