The Mississippi Supreme Court put Gov. Haley Barbour in his place yesterday, ruling 8 to 1 that the governor had approved an illegal ballot design for the November election.

State law stipulates that national races be listed above state and local contests. Barbour approved a ballot with the Musgrove/Wicker senate race listed at the very bottom, below county-level races.

Barbour claimed that because this race is a special election, it should be listed separately from the general election races. The court looked at the law and determined that it said no such thing.

The consensus was that this was a hardball political play by Barbour. The assumption was that ballot drop-off would give Republican Roger Wicker and edge over Democrat Ronnie Musgrove in a very competitive race.

For more details, see my latest piece in Raw Story.