The future of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi was debated before the Mississippi Supreme Court this week, with Gov. Haley Barbour arguing that funding for the tobacco prevention program should be ended, the Associated Press reported March 26.

Barbour, a longtime ally of the tobacco industry, said that the private nonprofit group should not be allowed to receive funding from the state's share of the nationwide tobacco settlement without the approval of the legislature. A Jackson County judge ruled in favor of the governor in December 2006; the high court is hearing the appeal of that ruling.

Former Mississippi attorney general Mike Moore, who led the fight for the tobacco settlement, helped direct $20 million from the tobacco industry to the Partnership in 2000. Moore remains the chairman of the Partnership's board of directors.