State’s anti-price gouging law found constitutional

JACKSON — The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the state’s price-gouging law.

The justices unanimously overturned a Winston County judge’s ruling that the law was unconstitutionally vague.

Chancellor J. Max Kilpatrick’s ruling came in 2008, when he rejected Attorney General Jim Hood’s lawsuit accusing a Mississippi oil company of charging too much for fuel after Hurricane Katrina. Kilpatrick has since retired from the bench.

The Supreme Court sent the case back to Winston County to determine if Fair Oil Co. in Louisville violated the law.

Fair Oil was one of two companies Hood sued in 2007. The lawsuit accused the company of gouging consumers after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

Source: The Associated Press