Despite this court ruling, Governor Ross Barnett, the governor of Mississippi, publicly vowed that he would block Meredith’s admission and he kept to his words. Governor Barnett was elected registrar of the university and used his powers as registrar to reject Meredith’s admission. Then he got the Mississippi legislature to pass a law that banned anyone who had been previously convicted of a state crime from being admitted to a state school. This was clearly targeting Meredith’s admission because Meredith had been convicted of false voter registration prior to this event.