A Louisiana man who spent decades in prison on a wrongful conviction briefly began work Monday overseeing the criminal court in New Orleans after a judge blocked the state from eliminating the position. Yet Calvin Duncan’s day soon got messy, the AP reports: A higher court stepped in about 9:30am and froze that decision at the state’s request. Duncan won 68% of the vote to serve as Orleans Parish criminal court clerk. But at the urging of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, the GOP-controlled state legislature raced to pass legislation eliminating the position days before Duncan’s term was to start, transferring the duties to another official.
US District Judge John deGravelles intervened on Sunday, saying the law eliminating the clerk position was unconstitutional because it replaced an elected office with a political appointee. He granted a restraining order while the litigation proceeds. Louisiana responded with an appeal, saying the order “accomplishes nothing other than threaten chaos.” The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay. Seated in the clerk’s office, Duncan told the AP after the stay: “I am the clerk of the criminal district court, that will never change.” A spokesperson for Duncan later said he “ceased acting” as clerk to comply with the latest court ruling.
Alanah Odoms, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, told reporters that Duncan’s term began at midnight and it cannot be cut short under the state’s constitution. Odoms said the ACLU would continue to make this argument before the appeals court and to the US Supreme Court, if necessary. “The state moved too slow,” Odoms said. “We don’t believe that his term can be diminished now.” Duncan’s supporters say the attempt by a majority white conservative Legislature to eliminate Duncan’s job thwarts the will of voters in New Orleans, a predominantly Black Democratic hub in a red state. Civil rights groups warn that Duncan’s case is a preview of a coming wave of the disenfranchisement of minority voters now that the Supreme Court dismantled a key provision of the Voting Rights Act in an effort led by Louisiana.
