New Orleans officials filed a petition Wednesday (Sept. 30), asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision to uphold a law abolishing the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position.
Officials are asking the highest court to decide whether the state legislature can abolish an elected position after someone has already been elected. Mayor Helena Moreno, City Council President JP Morrell and retired criminal court judge Calvin Johnson are named as petitioners.
City officials have long held that Act 15 is unconstitutional. In May, five council members — including Morrell — voted in favor of a special election in November for a combined clerk of court for Orleans Parish. They — along with Moreno and Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams — argued that the legislation that abolished the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position had also created a new combined clerk position that needed to be filled. The city appointed Johnson to the position on an interim basis.
Calvin Duncan, who held the position of criminal court clerk when the position was abolished, announced he’d run for the combined position.
The city dropped the idea after Attorney General Liz Murrill wrote the eight officials letters, telling them that she could remove them from their positions if they went ahead with the election.
Murrill was indicted in July by an Orleans Parish grand jury for intimidation because of those letters, but the charges were dropped a few weeks later at the request of city officials. Murrill claims city officials influenced the grand jury to make the indictment, which a city spokesperson called “flimsy and false.”
Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court narrowly upheld Act 15, which abolished the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court by merging it with the civil clerk, in a 4-3 decision. City officials are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn that decision.
“At its core, democracy demands that when people vote in a lawful election, their votes must mean something,” Moreno said in a statement. “Government should not be able to wait until an election is over, see the result, and then erase the effect of those votes. Protecting constitutional rights sometimes requires a willingness to fight all the way to the highest court in the country.
“That is what we are doing. We are asking the Supreme Court to address important federal constitutional questions not only for New Orleans, but for voters everywhere.”
Murrill’s office did not return a request for comment.
