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 …
Read More »5th Circuit Sets Deadline For Louisiana Legislature To Draw New Congressional Maps
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 …
Read More »Jeff Landry Races To Outright Win In Louisiana Governor’s Race
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 …
Read More »Louisiana Governor Vetoes Bills Targeting LGBTQ+ Youth
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 …
Read More »Supreme Court Clears Way For Second Black Congressional District In Louisiana
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 …
Read More »Supreme Court Rejects Texas Effort To Force Biden Administration To Change Deportation Policy
Uriel J. García, The Texas Tribune The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled that Texas and Louisiana lacked legal standing to challenge the Biden administration’s priorities on who should be deported. In a 8-1 decision, the court found that even though the states lacked legal standing to sue in this …
Read More »Republicans Kill $10 Minimum Wage Proposal For Louisiana
Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator Republican lawmakers on a state House panel killed a measure that would have established a $10 per hour minimum wage in Louisiana and increased to $14 by 2028. House Bill 374, sponsored by Rep. Ed Larvadain, D-Alexandria, failed to pass the House Committee on Labor and …
Read More »Five White Cops Plead Not Guilty In Death Of Black Motorist Ronald Greene
Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator The five white law enforcement officers indicted in connection with the May 2019 beating death of Black motorist Ronald Greene pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the respective charges they face. The defendants — four Louisiana State Police troopers and one Union Parish Sheriff’s deputy — were …
Read More »Louisiana Lawmakers Want ‘In God We Trust’ Signs In Every Classroom
Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator One of the first bills filed ahead of Louisiana’s 2023 legislative Session would require all public schools and universities to put a new sign in every classroom: “In God We Trust.” House Bill 8, cosponsored by Republican Reps. Dodie Horton of Houghton and Jack McFarland of …
Read More »Louisiana Supreme Court Won’t Allow New Trials For ‘Jim Crow’ Split-Jury Verdicts
Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator The U.S. Supreme Court ruled two years ago that felony convictions could no longer be secured with a non-unanimous jury in Louisiana and Oregon, the last two states that had such a threshold. But Louisiana’s highest court handed down an opinion Friday that said the ruling …
Read More »‘This Is Blackmail’: New Orleans Denied Flood Funds Over Opposition to Abortion Ban
Progressives are sounding the alarm about the lengths to which GOP officials appear willing to go to advance their deeply unpopular and reactionary agenda after Louisiana’s State Bond Commission, at the urging of right-wing Attorney General Jeff Landry, once again denied flood prevention resources to New Orleans due to the …
Read More »Restraining Order Blocking Louisiana Abortion Ban To Stay In Place, Judge Decides
A state district judge in Baton Rouge will keep a temporary restraining order in effect while the court considers whether Louisiana’s abortion ban is legal. Judge Donald Johnson issued his ruling Tuesday that prevents Attorney General Jeff Landry and the state health department from enforcing the state’s abortion prohibition. So-called …
Read More »Louisiana Abortion Ban Temporarily Lifted By New Orleans Judge
by Julie O’Donoghue, Louisiana Illuminator A state district judge in New Orleans on Monday temporarily lifted Louisiana’s abortion ban until July 8, when the court will consider a legal challenge to the ban from a Shreveport abortion clinic, the clinic’s administrator and a medical student abortion rights organization based at …
Read More »Federal Court Rejects Louisiana Congressional Map
by Wesley Muller, Louisiana Illuminator A federal judge has struck down Louisiana’s congressional redistricting map that state lawmakers adopted earlier this year. In a ruling issued Monday, Judge Shelly Dick found the Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act by limiting representation of Louisiana’s one-third Black population to just one of the …
Read More »Abortion Would Be Punishable As Murder Under New Louisiana Proposal
by Greg LaRose, Louisiana Illuminator May 4, 2022 Less than 48 hours after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling was leaked, indicating the landmark abortion ruling in Roe v. Wade would be overturned, Louisiana lawmakers acted aggressively to bolster state law that bans the procedure. The House Committee for the Administration …
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