Brief filed against New Orleans Civil Court in wake of house arrest dispute

A week after New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu narrowly escaped being placed on weekend house arrest, three major civic groups in Louisiana last week filed an amicus curiae brief with the Louisiana Supreme Court arguing that the Civil District Court’s contempt citation requiring the house arrest of Mayor Mitch Landrieu was a “clear violation of the separation of powers” and would have significant impact on laws across Louisiana. The brief – filed by the Louisiana Municipal Association, the Police Jury Association of Louisiana and the Louisiana Conference of Mayors – also strongly argued that the judgment should ultimately be reversed. These organizations, along with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, have also committed to filing similar amicus briefs supporting the City’s appeal of the District Court ruling.

On Friday, Sept. 4, Civil District Court Judge Kern Reese granted a contempt motion filed by the New Orleans firefighters’ in a decades-old dispute over firefighters’ backpay and ordered Mayor Landrieu to weekend house arrest beginning Friday, Sept. 11.

Both Judge Reese and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the mayor’s efforts to avoid house arrest in a motion filed Sept. 11, but the state Supreme Court granted his stay.

On Monday, Sept. 14, the Supreme Court also found that the District Court “abused its discretion” in denying the City’s petition for suspensive appeal and ordered the District Court to grant the petition.

“The District Court entangled itself in a very serious separation of powers issue even in the face of the clear Louisiana constitutional provisions and jurisprudence,” the brief stated. “Nothing has been cited by [New Orleans Fire Fighters] to provide the District Court with any power to turn the relevant constitutional provisions on their head. Thus, it appears such action was only taken out of frustration that this long-standing litigation has not been resolved, in an attempt to force the New Orleans City Council to appropriate money to pay the judgment to [New Orleans Fire Fighters]. This type of forcefulness from another branch of government is exactly the reason why all Louisiana Courts, including the Louisiana Supreme Court, put such emphasis of the principles expressed in Article XII, Section 10 of the constitution and why the District Court erred in granting [New Orleans Fire Fighters’] Motion for Contempt and holding the Mayor, personally, under house arrest if the 2014 Consent Judgment is not paid. There is no clearer case than this to demonstrate a disregard of the separation of powers doctrine and, hence, the reason the District Court must be reversed.”

The amicus brief also argued that the District Court violated the proper Louisiana procedure to enforce a judgment against the City and cautioned that any effort by the judiciary to direct public funds would constitute an “unlawful seizure of public funds.”

In a recent interview, FOX 8 News asked Mayor Landrieu if the house arrest dispute is fueled by earlier squabbles between the mayor and Civil Court judges. The mayor responded by saying that FOX 8 should pose that question to Judge Reese.

Reese was invited by FOX 8 to weigh in on the dispute but said he could not comment on ongoing litigation.

The mayor referred to efforts to place him under house arrest as a “judicial coup” and said he never imagined he would be placed under house arrest for doing his job.

The Landrieu administration and the Civil Court were embroiled in a bitter dispute over whether the judges could build a new Civil Court building on a vacant site near City Hall. One of the judges, Michael Bagneris, ran for mayor against Landrieu last year and was endorsed by Judge Reese. The Landrieu administration also ruffled some feathers at Civil Court last year when it attempted to reduce the number of judicial seats. Those efforts were rebuffed by a state Judge,Wilson Fields.

This article originally published in the September 21, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.