LOUISIANA — Voting is the foundation of our democracy, and with the upcoming March 29th election, it’s important for you to understand the issues on the ballot.
There are four proposed constitutional amendments, we covered some of these before. If you would like to read about those. Click here and here.
Amendment One on your ballot asks:
"Do you support an amendment granting the Louisiana Supreme Court jurisdiction to discipline out-of-state lawyers for unethical legal practices in the state of Louisiana, and to grant the legislature the authority to establish trial courts of limited and specialized jurisdiction?"
The first part of Amendment One would empower the Louisiana Supreme Court to discipline out-of-state lawyers for legal work done within the state.
State Senator Jay Morris, who co-authored the bill, explained the necessity of this amendment.
"The Supreme Court has no authority to oversee or regulate or discipline lawyers, and there was a real problem with out-of-state lawyers that were pretty bad actors that came in after some of the storms in southwest Louisiana, and the Supreme Court couldn’t do anything about it," Morris said.
A vote against the amendment would "retain the current provisions governing the Louisiana Supreme Court’s oversight of lawyer discipline," according to PAR.
The second part of the amendment would give the legislature the ability to establish trial courts with limited and specialized jurisdiction.
Consuela Gaines of Voice of the Experienced also known as VOTE is a grassroots organization that has filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Liz Murrill to remove this amendment from the ballot.
"It would allow the powers that be to create courts that can be harmful to many people: Black, Brown, poor. We don’t know specifically what these specialty courts will be. I think that is way too broad for them to just say specialty courts. Name that, name what those courts will have the power to do," Gaines said.
State Senator Morris told KATC that this part of the amendment would benefit smaller areas in the state.
"Right now, a single rural parish cannot afford a judge just for drug cases, which is very important as we try to address the drug problems that we have. Because the constitution stands in the way of that, this would allow, for example, five rural parishes to go to the legislature and say, 'Please create a drug court for this region,' and there's enough money to pay for one judge," Morris said.
If you want to find your polling place or view a sample ballot, click here.
