Forrest County
South Mississippi county whose seat is Hattiesburg; subject of the 1962 Kennedy v. Lynd case.
Forrest County's registrar, Theron C. Lynd, lost Kennedy v. Lynd on 11 July 1962, when the Fifth Circuit ordered him to open voting records to federal inspection. The Justice Department now cites that ruling in its 2026 suits for state voter lists.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026
Timeline for Forrest County
Mentioned in: Judge dismisses DOJ's Georgia voter suit
US Midterms 2026Background
The county's 1962 records fight has a second life in 2026. The Justice Department relies on the ruling in its suits for state voter files, but a federal judge in Atlanta dismissed the Georgia suit on 30 September 2026, holding that the 1960 law it rests on does not override Georgia's voter-privacy statute.
In the original case, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy used Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to demand the right to inspect and copy registration records held by Lynd, WHO was the county's circuit clerk and registrar. The Fifth Circuit, in an opinion by Judge John R. Brown, upheld the demand. It made Hattiesburg's county one of the named battlegrounds of federal civil-rights enforcement in Mississippi.
Forrest County lies in south Mississippi, with Hattiesburg as its seat. The Census Bureau estimated its population at about 78,000 in July 2024.