Louisiana Supreme Court to decide who stays in race for its District 2 seat
19th August 2024 · 0 Comments
By Greg LaRose
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — The Louisiana Supreme Court issued an order Thursday (Aug. 15) afternoon saying its justices will consider a case over which candidates get to stay in the election for a seat on the high court.
The move means an appellate court ruling that removed one of three candidates from the field remains in limbo, at least until justices consider arguments made thus far. They’ve also been asked to remove a second candidate.
Last Thursday’s order acknowledges time is a factor. State election officials intend to lock in the ballot for the Nov. 5 election by next week.
The state Supreme Court will not hear arguments from attorneys for the three candidates and instead ponder existing submissions and transcripts from lower court hearings, according to the order from Chief Justice John Weimer.
The dispute involves candidates for the District 2 seat on the state Supreme Court, a new district created to favor a Black candidate to account for an increase in Black population in Louisiana. The new boundaries stretch from Baton Rouge to Monroe.
Qualifiers for the District 2 race are Leslie Chambers of Baton Rouge, chief of staff for the Louisiana Housing Corp., First Circuit Court of Appeal Chief Judge John Michael Guidry of Baton Rouge and Second Circuit Court Judge Marcus Hunter of Monroe. All three are Black Democrats.
The lawsuit in question challenges whether Chambers and Hunter should be in the race. It argues Chambers doesn’t live in District 2, and that both she and Hunter have failed to file income taxes over the past years as required for election candidates.
Baton Rouge voter Elisa Knowles Collins filed the lawsuit. At the initial trial before the 19th Judicial District Court, it was learned that Collins’ daughter works for Judge Guidry as an attorney. It’s not clear who’s paying for the team of attorneys behind Collins’ lawsuit. Lead lawyer David Bievenu has said it would be inappropriate for him to identify who is paying him.
Judge Donald Johnson ruled that all three candidates could stay on the ballot, leading Collins to appeal the decision to the state’s Fourth Circuit in New Orleans. Ordinarily, an appeal of a 19th District decision would have gone to the First District, but Guidry’s position on the court forced a reassignment.
The Fourth Circuit’s decision removed Chambers from the race, in a 9-3 vote from judges. The prevailing opinion found that Chambers didn’t adequately prove that she had paid her taxes.
Chambers appealed her removal to the Supreme Court, and attorneys for Collins appealed the Fourth Circuit decision to keep Hunter on the ballot.
It’s unclear whether the Supreme Court is considering taking Chambers, Hunter or both out of the race. The order issued last week was in response to Collins’ writ to remove Hunter, but justices could uphold or reverse the Fourth Circuit ruling in part or entirely.
The term of current District 2 Justice Scott Chricton from Shreveport, who is white, ends Dec. 31. He could not seek re-election because he turned 70, the mandatory retirement age for Louisiana judges, in June. That led the legislators to redraw the District 2 lines to create a second Black district among the Supreme Court’s seven seats.
This article originally published in the August 19, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
