Tag Archives: Louisiana

A federal appellate court has cleared the way for displays of the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom, removing an order that stopped state officials from enforcing a law that requires them. In a decision issued Friday from its full roster of 18 judges, the U.S. 5th Circuit …

Louisiana Democrat Chasity Verret Martinez won a decisive victory Saturday in a special election for a state House seat in a district President Donald Trump carried by double digits in 2024, delivering another warning sign for Republicans amid a string of Democratic overperformances in special elections. Martinez defeated Republican Brad …

More than a decade after the Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act and just two years after it declined to unravel another, the high court on Wednesday will hear a consequential challenge to Louisiana’s congressional map that could further weaken the law’s protections for minority …

Louisiana is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decades-old precedent that has safeguarded minority voting rights, urging the justices to strike down the central provision of the Voting Rights Act and ban any use of race in redistricting. In a legal brief filed Wednesday, Republican Attorney General Liz …

When Desoto Regional Health System took out $36 million in loans last year to renovate a rural hospital that opened in 1952, officials were banking on its main funding source remaining stable: Medicaid, the joint federal-state health program for low-income people and the disabled. But those dollars are now in …

Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator A Louisiana law that will require schools to place displays of the Ten Commandments in every classroom is “coercive” and “unconstitutional,” according to the federal judge who issued an order Tuesday that stops the law taking effect Jan. 1. Nine families have sued the state, arguing …

Jimmy Williams Nine Louisiana families have filed a federal lawsuit against the state’s education department and local school boards, challenging a new law that mandates the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. The lawsuit was filed just days after Governor Jeff Landry signed the controversial bill into …

Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator Four civil liberties groups will sue the state of Louisiana after Republican Gov. Jeff Landry signed a law Wednesday that calls for the Ten Commandments to be displayed in school classrooms. The new rule applies to any school that accepts state money, including colleges and universities. …

Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator The Louisiana Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would label two drugs used to induce labor and treat miscarriages as “controlled dangerous substances,” despite opposition from a broad group of medical professionals. The proposal from state Sen. Thomas Pressly, a Shreveport Republican, targets …

Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator Louisiana’s Republican attorney general announced Monday the state is suing the Biden administration over new Title IX rules that aim to protect LGBTQ+ students. The updates to the federal law that forbids sex-based discrimination in education have been expanded to include gender identity and sexual orientation. …

Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator In the face of Republican threats to reproductive health care, Democratic state lawmakers filed legislation Monday that would guarantee access to contraception in Louisiana. Sen. Royce Duplessis and Rep. Delisha Boyd, both New Orleans Democrats, have filed Senate Bill 225 and House Bill 395, respectively. Referred …

Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is giving the Louisiana legislature until Jan. 15 to draw new congressional maps that include two majority Black districts. Gov.-elect Jeff Landry, a Republican, says he will call a special redistricting session of the legislature once he’s sworn in …

Louisiana Illuminator, Louisiana Illuminator Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry will become Louisiana’s 57th governor, claiming the seat outright in Saturday’s primary in a field with three other GOP candidates, a conservative independent and a lone Democrat who was expected to force a runoff. “Tonight’s election was historic. …Tonight’s election says …

Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator As promised, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has vetoed three anti-LGBTQ+ bills the state’s Republican-majority legislature approved. In his veto messages, Edwards called out the bills as harmful for youth, discriminatory and extremist. “The effects of this bill may be to simply give legislative …

Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator The U.S. Supreme Court lifted its stay in a Louisiana redistricting case, clearing the way to add a second Black district to the state’s congressional map. The case of Ardoin v. Robinson stems from a congressional map with just one majority-Black district that Louisiana’s Republican lawmakers adopted …