The Louisiana Supreme Court has upheld a law that eliminates three of twelve Orleans Parish Criminal Court judge positions.
The law was part of a legislative package to shrink the Orleans Parish court system — the only parish with separate civil and criminal courts.
Originally, SB 217 — now Act 748 — by West Monroe Sen. Jay Morris called for the three criminal court judges with the least seniority to be cut. Section A Judge Simone Levine, Section J Judge John T. Fuller and Section I Judge Leon Roché fit the criteria, but were not named in that version of the bill.
Two days before the session ended, however, a conference committee swapped Roché for District E Judge Rhonda Goode-Douglass, while also naming District Judges A, E and J specifically. Members of the committee did not say why they made the swap, but Morris credited the governor’s office and the Orleans delegation.
In his lawsuit, Fuller alleges neither chamber met a constitutionally required two-thirds supermajority vote to change the number of judges in a judicial district, but the bill was passed and signed into law anyway. Language in the bill that required the supermajority had been removed by the final vote.
SB 217 passed the House on a 62-34 vote, and the Senate on a 25-10 vote. The bill would need at least 70 votes in the House and 26 votes in the Senate to reach a two-thirds majority.
The high court ruled 4-3 on Friday, July 31, that a simple majority was enough for the bill to pass through the legislature.
The majority noted that the issue at hand was not the law itself, but whether a legislative supermajority was needed.
“As the majority correctly observes, “notwithstanding any other provision of this constitution” means exactly what it says,” wrote Justice William Burris in his concurrence.
The three dissenting judges argued a supermajority was warranted in the case, and accused the majority of targeting New Orleans.
“Act 748 failed to gain the necessary votes as required by §15(D) and is therefore unconstitutional to the extent it reduced the number of district judges in Orleans Criminal District Court,” wrote Justice Piper Griffin in her dissent. “In holding otherwise, the majority makes clear that New Orleans is not “part of” but “subordinate to” Louisiana. This violates our Constitution’s goals. Until today, we were one State, with one Constitution—one unitary organic law for all Louisianians.”
The concurring justices addressed this issue in their writings — in some cases, directly responding to their fellow justices’ dissents.
“There is much discussion in the dissenting opinions about their preference that New
Orleans judges should be governed by the same provisions as other courts. Unfortunately,
it seems that desire is a one-way street applicable only when beneficial,” Justice Cade Cole wrote in his concurrence.
In a statement released less than an hour after the high court’s decision, Attorney General Liz Murrill said she is “grateful” that the court resolved the matter quickly.
“[The] decision restores certainty and allows the election process to move forward as intended,” she wrote.
The law will go into effect January 1, 2027 — the end of the Orleans incumbent judges’ current terms.
