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A proposal that would authorize state lawmakers to set up new “specialized” courts is still alive after Louisiana House Republican leaders took an unusual step Monday to rescue it from being scuttled.
The backers of Senate Bill 1 said they want to create a special court system focused exclusively on complex business cases, though the legislation could clear the way for lawmakers to set up regional courts devoted to veterans, drug use and mental health.
Critics have raised the specter that the proposal would also allow the legislators to create a new, state-controlled criminal court in New Orleans as was set up in Jackson, Mississippi.
The bill’s naysayers also have concerns that no specific proposal outlining what a speciality business court would look like has been released. It’s not clear how the court’s judges would be selected or whether jury trials would be used.
How much a business court might cost the state also hasn’t been determined. All of that would have to happen in future legislation that hasn’t been drafted yet.
The uncertainty led the House Judiciary Committee to reject a proposed constitutional amendment to empower legislators to establish state courts with “limited or specialized jurisdiction.”
“I like to usually see a plan when I vote for something,” said Rep. Chad Brown, D-Plaquemines, a member of the Judiciary Committee who opposed the legislation. “There’s a lot of specialty courts that would bring fear to a lot of people.”
Monday’s 5-7 vote committee vote would typically have killed the bill for the rest of the special legislative session. Nevertheless, House Republican leaders kept the proposal alive by removing it from the judiciary committee’s jurisdiction.
The Louisiana House Civil Law and Procedure Committee then voted 11-3 Tuesday to send the bill to the full House floor for debate. If lawmakers fully approve the measure, it would still need voter approval on a March 29 state ballot to become law.
When civil law committee members asked for clarification on what a specialty court set up by the legislation might look like, the bill’s co-sponsor, Rep. Dixon McMakin, R-Baton Rouge, repeatedly replied: “To be determined.”
In Jackson, a majority-Black city, Mississippi state lawmakers established a Capitol Complex Improvement District Court where the prosecutor and judge are appointed by white, conservative elected officials. Mississippi residents typically get to elect their local judges.
Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, has insisted, as one of the sponsors of the legislation, that the constitutional amendment would not allow for appointed judges to replace elected ones in Louisiana. The Louisiana Constitution prohibits state court judges from being anything other than picked by voters, he said.
Elected statewide or regional judges could create the same type of concerns, said Bruce Reilly, deputy director of Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), an advocacy group for incarcerated people.
If a regional criminal court was created, for example, it could result in a district judge elected in a parish other than the one where the accused lives presiding over his trial. A jury could also end up being made up of people from outside the accused community, which Reilly said would not meaningfully represent a group of the accused’s “peers,” as required under the U.S. Constitution.
Rep. Wilford Carter, a retired Democratic judge from Lake Charles, also said he worries the amendment could help legislators circumvent federal voting rights laws that ensure minority representation. If state courts morph into regional or statewide elected positions, it could dilute Black voters’ power to get the candidates of their choice elected, he said.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, said regional specialty courts could also help more rural areas of the state.
Where he lives in central Louisiana, the community would like to have specialty drug courts to handle cases concerning substance abuse, but the local court systems don’t have the resources to establish them, he said. The amendment would allow several court districts to come together to create a regional drug court if it passed, Johnson added.
Still, it’s not clear that juries would hand down verdicts in a business-focused speciality court such as the one Morris has pitched. The senator would not say whether juries would be involved in such a specialty court when asked this week.
“I don’t want to sit here and tell you what I want [in terms of a business court] without having months of study,” he said in response to questions from his colleagues.
Morris said his colleagues shouldn’t worry too much about new specialty courts being established without broad legislative support. It would require a two-thirds majority vote of each chamber to set up a new state court, which is high enough so that it would require a consensus of lawmakers.
A few legislators were still put off on the lack of a specific proposal, however.
“I don’t believe in changing the constitution just for the sake of changing the constitution,” Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, said.