The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson:

In a ruling that is likely to excite more heated political discussion than learned debate over its legal merits, the Mississippi Supreme Court sided with former Gov. Haley Barbour in the matter of his prison pardons.

In their 6-3 opinion, the justices wrote that the governor alone can decide whether the Mississippi Constitution’s publication requirement was met.

Attorney General Jim Hood had challenged the pardons, arguing before the court in February that some pardons didn’t meet the requirements of the Mississippi Constitution, which says people seeking pardons must publish notices for 30 days in a newspaper.

In the waning days of his administration in December, before Phil Bryant was sworn into office as governor in January, Barbour pardoned a record 198 people.

The decision was based on a narrow issue, focusing on the 10 inmates who remained in custody when the pardons were announced. Of those, the court wrote that “it fell to the governor alone to decide whether the Constitution’s publication requirement was met.”

The court, further, affirmed the broad constitutional authority of a governor to pardon.

The court, of course, did not rule on whether Barbour’s action was a wise one. In the court of public opinion, Barbour clearly lost that case.

The court — rightly — also did not say if the pardon power should be diminished. That’s not a judicial issue but a political decision that the Legislature and the people must decide. The question remains if the Legislature at some point will attempt to limit that power. Such proposals this session have died.

Governors pardon for a reason or no reason. Sometimes “justice” is not found in the letter of the law but in a general interpretation through a pardon.

Gov. Bryant, witnessing the Barbour pardon fiasco, has remedied the custom of pardons for Governor’s Mansion service. It was a throwback to the old Parchman Prison Farm system of granting favors to some inmates over others, and deserved an end.

Barbour made a serious error of judgment with his last-minute pardons. The Supreme Court, however, made the correct ruling on the constitutional points and in affirming broad executive authority to pardon. It is hoped future governors will use that power more wisely.