Ruling leaves Guidry unopposed in Louisiana Supreme Court race
26th August 2024 · 0 Comments
By Greg LaRose
Contributing Writer
(lailluminator.com) — The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that two candidates for its District 2 seat failed to meet the standards to qualify for the race, leaving just one person in the Nov. 5 election.
Chief Judge John Michael Guidry of the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge is the apparent winner after justices ruled that neither of his opponents provided the needed documentation to show they have filed their income tax returns over the past five years.
The decision removes Leslie Chambers, chief of staff for the Louisiana Housing Corp., and Judge Marcus Hunter of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal in Monroe from the ballot.
“While I, of course, respect the state high court’s final judgment, I’ll be conferring with counsel this evening to assess the full impact of these decisions, including whether there is judicial relief beyond this venue,” Chambers said in a statement through her campaign.
Hunter has yet to comment on the decision.
A lawsuit from Baton Rouge voter Elisa Knowles Collins challenged the candidacies of Chambers and Hunter. At the initial trial before the 19th Judicial District Court, it was acknowledged Collins’ daughter works in the First Circuit as an attorney for Guidry. Collins has not identified who has footed the bill for the team of attorneys behind her lawsuit. Lead lawyer David Bievenu has refused to provide such information.
District Judge Donald Johnson ruled all three candidates could remain on the ballot, leading Collins to appeal the decision to the state’s Fourth Circuit in New Orleans. That appeal would have typically gone to the First District, but Guidry’s presence on the court forced the case to be reassigned.
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 filed her tax return for the year in question, although her attorney noted at trial that she was owed a refund.
Chambers appealed her removal to the Louisiana Supreme Court, and attorneys for Collins appealed the Fourth Circuit decision to keep Hunter on the ballot.
Justices reversed the lower court rulings in a 5-2 decision, with Associate Justices Piper Griffin and Jefferson Hughes dissenting. The prevailing opinion found that Hunter never provided solid proof that he had filed his tax returns before the July candidate qualifying period. They also upheld the appellate court’s reasoning for removing Chambers.
“I interpret ‘filed’ to require transmission of a properly executed tax return plus some indicia of delivery. That was not proven here,” Associate Justice William Crain said regarding Hunter’s arguments in a concurring opinion.
In his dissent, Hughes said the state Supreme Court “merely substitutes its own judgment for that of the trial court, in contravention of established law.”
“The issue is not, in hindsight, whether taxes have been filed, mailed, transmitted, received, and/or rejected,” Hughes wrote. “There is an obvious difference between a candidate who has done nothing, and knows it, and one who in good faith believes his taxes have been filed when he or she so certifies.”
The seat Guidry would hold is the newly created majority-Black district on the high court, giving minorities a chance to hold two of its seven positions.
This article originally published in the August 26, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
