By Sabrina Wilson
Published: Jun. 7, 2024 at 10:09 PM CDT
NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) -A bill awaiting the signature of Governor Jeff Landry would give Jefferson Parish voters a better chance of electing a second African American to the state appeals court in that parish.
Rep. Rodney Lyons, D-Marrero, authored House Bill 926, approved by the La. House of Representatives and the Senate during the recent regular legislative session.
“It creates a minority opportunity for the 1st District,” said Lyons.
The state Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal is located in Gretna on the west bank of Jefferson Parish. However, along with Jefferson Parish, it is also the venue for prosecutors, plaintiffs, and defendants to seek legal relief if they do not accept decisions from district courts in those parishes. Currently, only one African American sits on that court.
“This is pretty much in line with what was done to create the first minority opportunity in 2007. The same language, I use the same language from that same bill and had to draw different boundaries, of course with the precincts in it. But it has the same premise to allow an African American minority to be elected by people who actually can vote for someone of their choosing in that area to be represented in that court,” said Lyons during an interview with FOX 8.
According to the U.S. Census, blacks comprise nearly 30% of Jefferson Parish’s population at 28.8%.
“So, it’s warranted, based upon the numbers. If you look at the Census of 2020, go back to the census of 2010, you notice the growth in Jefferson Parish and minority growth in Jefferson Parish, is predominantly on the west bank of Jefferson,” said Lyons.
New boundaries would impact only Jefferson Parish Lyons said.
“Currently the judges, the majority judges in that district run at large, which means there’s five or six judges that run at the population of the whole parish. in that current configuration. In years past, the likelihood of a minority being elected was null, it never was possible until these sections were created to allow individuals in those areas to vote for a candidate of their choice,” Lyons said. “So, when I drew these lines here, I drew those lines in the areas where the majority of the minority people were, and the growth was in the past, which is on the west bank.
Before winning final approval in the House, Lyons argued for his bill before his colleagues.
“There’s currently eight justices, one a minority and this is to create a second minority seat but only after the election cycle which is a 10-year cycle, in case of a death or resignation or something, it’s not going to happen until the year of 2030,” Lyons said during House floor speech.
But his bill faced opposition from fellow Jefferson Parish state Rep. Polly Thomas when it came up for a vote on April 29.
“Did you give any consideration to St. John the Baptist Parish, St. Charles, St. James?” she asked Lyons.
He replied, That’s irrelevant. As I said this is for Jefferson Parish.
Thomas continued, “How did you end up selecting just the west bank of Jefferson Parish to carve out, to split up this district? How did you select just the west bank?”
Lyons said in response to Thomas, “Again, I believe you’re mispresenting ‘split up’. As you were told on Thursday this does not split up anything.”
In a one-on-one interview with FOX 8, Lyons reiterated that point.
“As the bill says, this only enacts when there’s a vacancy. So, we’re not running anybody to a runoff, we’re not creating opportunity to have some people to be in different races; when a seat is vacated, the following seat will be in that particular district that’s there,” he said.
Republican Sen. Pat Connick of Jefferson Parish carried Lyons’ bill in the legislature’s upper chamber.
“I think it was the right thing to do,” said Connick.
The Senate gave final passage to the bill at the end of May.
He and Lyons say the members of the judiciary did not oppose the legislation.
“No one was opposed to it. There was no judicial branch, anyone opposed to this because it was the right thing to do,” Lyons said.
Connick said, “No, they supported it, it was an easy bill to pass, not an easy bill to pass but it was something that we did it n the first try.”
This year the Louisiana legislature added a second black-majority district for the state’s congressional races and the state supreme court.
Lyons hopes the governor signs his bill into law. He said the measure could prevent litigation over the makeup of the appellate court.
“My opinion based upon his actions, what he’d done with the previous judges we had with the Supreme Court and the congressional seats that he probably stands by the equity piece here and how important it is, as we talked about in the debate, being proactive in this case here eliminates litigation and things like that in Jefferson,” said Lyons.
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