JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced that they would move to join the NAACP’s efforts to challenge House Bill 1020 and Senate Bill 2343 in Mississippi.

The complaint alleges that these provisions discriminate on the basis of race in violation of the U.S. Constitution by shifting authority over the county’s criminal justice system away from democratically-elected judges and prosecutors elected by Black voters.

“Mississippi state lawmakers have adopted a crude scheme that singles out and discriminates against Black residents in the City of Jackson and Hinds County,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“Today’s action from the Department of Justice is exemplary of what good government looks like. When our state leaders fail those they are supposed to serve, it is only right that the federal government steps in to ensure that justice is delivered,” said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President & CEO.

House Bill 1020, which was signed by Gov. Tate Reeves (R-Miss.), expands the state’s role in courts and policing in Jackson.

The lawsuit, filed by the national, state and local chapters of the NAACP, says “separate and unequal policing” will return to Mississippi’s majority-Black capital under the state-run police department whose territory would widen under the new state law. The law also creates a new court in part of Jackson with a judge appointed by Chief Justice Mike Randolph and requires him to appoint four temporary judges to serve with the four elected judges in the area’s circuit court.

NAACP officials said Senate Bill 2343, which was also signed by the governor, would restrict free speech by requiring people to obtain permission from state law enforcement officials for any protest near state buildings.

The NAACP lawsuit against House Bill 1020 claims the law is racially discriminatory under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The lawsuit against Senate Bill 2343 says the law violates the First Amendment’s protections.

A federal judge recently delayed the implementation of Senate Bill 2343. U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate ruled from the bench in favor of the Jackson Undivided Coalition, which claimed that provision violates the first amendment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.