A federal judge on Sunday blocked a state law that would have abolished the Orleans Parish criminal clerk of court position, clearing the way for Calvin Duncan, who was elected to the post last year, to assume office Monday.
U.S. District Judge John deGravelles in Baton Rouge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, granted Duncan’s request for a temporary restraining order, declaring Senate Bill 256 unconstitutional and enjoining Gov. Jeff Landry and Secretary of State Nancy Landry from enforcing it.
The law, which Jeff Landry signed Thursday as Act 15, was set to take effect at 11:59 p.m. Sunday and would have transferred the criminal clerk’s records, staff and duties to Chelsey Richard Napoleon, the Orleans civil clerk of court, making her the parishwide custodian of both civil and criminal court records.
In his 49-page ruling, deGravelles wrote that by “abolishing this particular office, creating a new office to replace it, and then appointing someone for that office, all when the Louisiana Constitution requires an election,” the defendants “have violated the Plaintiff’s federally protected constitutional rights to due process and to vote.”
The judge found that the state’s stated justifications for the law, which Jeff Landry has described as part of a broader court-restructuring effort, were “likely, pretextual,” and that the record showed “the state has a minimal interest in passing SB 256.”
The ruling is a temporary one. The restraining order remains in effect for 14 days, and deGravelles set a status conference for Monday at 2 p.m. by Zoom to discuss a longer-lasting preliminary injunction.
Duncan, who taught himself law while serving a life sentence at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for a murder conviction that was later vacated, won the November election for criminal clerk of court with 68% of the vote.
DeGravelles denied the motion in one respect, dismissing the right-to-vote claim against Attorney General Liz Murrill on sovereign immunity grounds. The judge found that Murrill, unlike the governor and secretary of state, had no enforcement role with respect to that claim. The dismissal was without prejudice.
Murrill, Jeff Landry and Nancy Landry had argued in a Friday filing that the Louisiana Constitution gives lawmakers the authority to consolidate the clerk’s offices and that federal courts lack the power to override the restructuring.
Jeff Landry has said the measure is not aimed at Duncan but at aligning Orleans Parish’s court structure with the rest of the state.
“This is about right-sizing the city so that we can provide the services necessary to the people of that city who need it the most,” he said in a Wednesday radio interview on WBOK.
DeGravelles rejected that framing. He noted that the bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, had acknowledged on the floor that an amendment accelerating the law’s effective date was sought “at the behest of the Governor,” who wanted the bill enacted “before Mr. Duncan takes office.” Morris, the ruling notes, also said the amendment was needed because otherwise the state would “have to pay him for the next four years in a job that is gonna be eliminated,” making Duncan “an immediate lame duck.”
Mayor Helena Moreno celebrated the ruling in a statement released Sunday night, saying the decision aligns with the will of voters.
“The court made clear that you cannot change the rules after an election has already taken place,” Moreno said. “Voters in New Orleans overwhelmingly elected Calvin Duncan and the will of the people should be respected.”
Napoleon said in a statement Friday, before the ruling, that she would prioritize running the May 16 primary and ensuring a “stable transition that preserves the integrity of our records.”
“I did not ask for this, nor do I agree with the process,” she said. “However, as a duly elected public official, I have taken an oath to uphold the law and serve the people.”
That election has been, separately, thrown into turmoil. Jeff Landry declared that the primaries for U.S. House races would not proceed following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week invalidating the state’s congressional maps. Early voting is already underway.
Duncan’s federal civil rights suit, filed Wednesday in Baton Rouge, alleges that Jeff Landry and Murrill engaged in a “coordinated conspiracy” to prevent him from taking office in retaliation for his criticism of the New Orleans criminal legal system during his campaign. The suit traces the dispute in part to a September letter from Murrill challenging Duncan’s description of himself as an exoneree. DeGravelles said he would take up the retaliation claim at a later hearing, resolving Sunday’s motion on the right-to-vote claim alone.
SB256, authored by Morris, is the first of several court-restructuring measures this legislative session to become law. Two additional bills were advanced by the House Judiciary Committee this week. Senate Bill 217 would eliminate three Orleans Criminal District Court trial judges and one juvenile court judge, and Senate Bill 197 would cut two seats from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal.
