Colonels earn bid to FCS Playoffs
November 19, 2017A note of caution and a few words of thanks
November 22, 2017
Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit turned down an attempt by Gov. John Bel Edwards and Attorney General Jeff Landry to stay the proceedings before U.S. District Judge James Brady titled NAACP vs. Jindal, meaning to halt everything so that the appellate court can decide if it wants to intervene at this point.
Edwards and Landry, the defendants, are not happy with the findings of the judge, that the state of Louisiana is in violation of Section 2 of the U.S. Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution, by sanctioning at-large election of state judges who sit in Terrebonne Parish.
The appeals court said no because in this type of case it is way too early for an appeal.
Holtzman Vogel Josefiak Torchinsky, the Virginia law firm Landry hired after Judge Brady made his decision, chanced at taxpayer expense the potential that the judges of the appeals court might step in. The Fifth Circuit is probably the most conservative in the nation.
The web in all of this becomes quite tangled.
The governor, I am confident in saying, likely would prefer that this all go away. It is a case he inherited from Bobby Jindal.
Landry, whose office has yet to disclose how much of the taxpayers’ money he is betting on Torchinsky and company, wants higher office.
His ultra-conservative base is also willing to see Louisiana’s money spent on lawyers that will show how tough Landry is on the NAACP.
There is also the matter of Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove who has made no secret of his feelings toward Jerome Boykin, president of the Terrebonne Parish NAACP.
The power bloc in the parish doesn’t want to see Terrebonne’s judges fighting against each other to stay on the bench if the five -district plan for the 32nd Judicial District goes into effect. Except that is not what would happen. For at least the first term that any judges elected in 2020 would have, there would be no residency requirement for the sub-districts. So a judge living in Sugar Mill Point could sit on the bench for the sub-district that includes Dulac and Chauvin.
People close to some of these folks have indicated that neither Dove, nor Landry, nor anyone else but black voters who cannot elect a candidate of their choice to be on the bench, could care less if this case winds through the courts for the next six years.
It can be a political playtoy for politicial extremists. It is suggested that for this reason the Attorney General has not, as requested, submitted a plan to counter the one the NAACP submitted for curing the problem the judge has determined exists.
A boon for Landry would be confirmation of President Donald Trump’s 5th Circuit picks. For that matter, continuing to stall until an appeal is necessary rather than working in good faith to end the matter and stop draining the treasury for the defense of this case is the make-up of the Supreme Court itself. A Trump-dominated High Court might well wish to feast on the Voting Rights Act. If that happens what does Landry have to lose?
Landry is already trying to have future influence on the 5th Circuit. His voice already appears on radio ads asking people to write their senators in support of Kyle Duncan, a Trump 5th Circuit pick. Duncan, described as a “Conservative Superstar” by Hayride blogger Scott McCay, is the former Louisiana Solicitor General. He fought against marriage equality.
Gordon Dove, who for reasons so far unknown appears to have great influence on Landry, wisely stated a while back that he wanted to have a seat at the table when discussion on reshaping how Terrebonne elects judges occurred. Now is the time for him to claim that seat, to look out for the interests of justice through compromise, and to help lead the local delegation away from being fodder for the Attorney General’s ambitions.
We know that Gordy Dove loves Terrebonne Parish. He is likely not pleased that a federal judge has branded it a place with a history of racism and that deliberate bigotry is involved. The way to show that as not being true is to help get the judge what he is asking for. A plan that the parish can live with so that this case can finally be closed. The time to fight is over. The time to heal has come.
