BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An upcoming election in a new majority-Black state Supreme Court district in Louisiana may already be decided after two of three candidates were disqualified from the race under an opinion issued by the very court they were running for.
The high court's decision Tuesday evening to drop two candidates from the ballot for failing to meet qualification requirements leaves 1st Circuit Court of Appeal Judge John Michael Guidry unopposed in the Nov. 5 election. He would be the second sitting Black justice and the second Democrat serving on the seven-member state Supreme Court.
Only three Black justices have served on the state's highest court in its nearly 120-year history, each elected from a majority-Black district in the New Orleans area. The Legislature this year created a second majority-minority district, which is anchored in the capital city of Baton Rouge and extends up the Mississippi River. The district covers the entirety of 13 other parishes on the northeast side of the state.
Booted from the race — after not providing adequate proof that they filed their tax returns in a timely manner, according to the court’s 5-2 ruling — are Marcus Hunter, a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal, and Leslie Chambers, chief of staff for the Louisiana Housing Corporation.
“While I would much prefer seeing multiple candidates participate in the electoral process to facilitate the voters have a choice in deciding who should serve them, I cannot ignore the clear facts or the applicable law which is equally clear,” Chief Justice John L. Weimer said in his reasoning.
Among the two dissenting Supreme Court votes was Justice Jefferson D. Hughes III. He wrote: “There is an obvious difference between a candidate who has done nothing, and knows it, and one who in good faith believes his taxes have been filed when he or she so certifies."
During testimony in the lower court, both Hunter and Chambers indicated that they believed their taxes has successfully been filed. State law requires Supreme Court candidates to file their state and federal taxes for each of the five years leading up to elections in order to qualify.
Chambers said she believed she successfully filed her 2022 taxes through TurboTax and was actually owed a nearly $5,000 refund. But the Louisiana Department of Revenue indicated it never received Chambers’ tax filings for that year, The Advocate reported. Hunter’s accountant testified that he believed Hunter’s taxes for all three years in question were successfully filed before the candidate qualified in July, The Advocate reported.
Hunter and Chambers have exhausted legal options within the Louisiana court system. They can attempt to appeal the decision to U.S. Supreme Court, but they are short on time. Early voting starts in less than two months. The Louisiana Secretary of State's office said it will begin the ballot programming process this Friday, and ballots will likely go to print sometime next week.
“While I, of course, respect the state high court's final judgment, I’ll be conferring with counsel this evening to assess the full impact of these decisions, including whether there is judicial relief beyond this venue," Chambers said in a written statement.
Hunter's campaign team did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
The redrawn district was crafted when lawmakers agreed to create an additional mostly Black district, remapping boundaries for the Supreme Court's seven districts for the first time in 27 years. All three candidates who signed up for the race are Black Democrats, meaning that no matter if all three candidates are on the ballot in November or if Guidry remains as the sole option, Louisiana is poised to add another Black justice, and registered Democrat, to the state’s highest court.
Currently, Piper D. Griffin is the only Black justice and lone Democrat sitting on the court. Her term is set to end in 2030.
Legal challenges against Chambers and Hunter arose last month. A lawsuit filed by Baton Rouge voter Elise Knowles Collins alleged that the two did not meet qualification requirements.
After a trial, a district court ruled that all three candidates could remain on the ballot. Collins appealed the decision, sending the case to the state's 4th Circuit Court where judges issued a decision to remove Chambers from the race. Chambers went on to appeal the lower court's decision in the Louisiana Supreme Court, which found that both Chambers and Hunter failed to prove they successfully filed their state taxes for certain years.
Guidry, who has served as an appellate court judge in Louisiana for 26 years, ran for the state Supreme Court in 2012 but fell short. The former state lawmaker became the first Black chief judge sworn in to lead the Capital City-based 1st Circuit, The Advocate reported.