3 Qualify for Second Black Seat on State Supreme Court | Courts

Three Democratic candidates are vying to become the second black justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court, a district that was redrawn in November.

First Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge John Michael Guidry faces Second Circuit Judge Marcus Hunter and Leslie Ricard Chambers, a policy adviser to former Gov. Jon Bel Edwards.

All three are graduates of Southern University Law Center.

It’s a monumental race to add an African-American judge to the seven seats on the state’s appellate court.

State lawmakers redrew the Supreme Court’s judicial boundaries during this year’s legislative session to create a second majority-black voting district. It was the first time Louisiana has redone its Supreme Court map since 1997, when a federal court order forced lawmakers to draw the state’s first majority-minority district in Orleans Parish. Judge Piper Griffin currently holds that seat on the state Supreme Court; her term ends in 2030.

Gov. Jeff Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill both sponsored the legislation this year, which followed a settlement in 2019 of a federal lawsuit brought by the NAACP and other civil rights advocates against the secretary of state. The lawsuit noted that since Louisiana voters began choosing their Supreme Court justices in 1904, there have been only three Black justices in the state. Supporters argued that the district lines allowed for “racially polarized voting” that diluted Black voting power, and sought to redraw the court’s voting map to better represent the state’s largest minority group. Black Louisianans make up nearly a third of the state’s population.

The court’s newly drawn district is anchored in Baton Rouge and stretches along the Mississippi River to Monroe, taking in all 13 other parishes on the state’s northeastern elbow along the way. The district, which also includes parts of Rapides, Tangipahoa and Ouachita parishes, has a voting population that is 55% black. Guidry, Hunter and Ricard Chambers were the three who entered the field when qualifying for the seat ended Friday, along with races in the state’s other primaries on Nov. 5, according to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website.

The November primary is nonpartisan, although all three Supreme Court candidates are Democrats. If no one in the race gets more than 50 percent of the votes cast, the two candidates with the most votes will compete in a do-or-die runoff on December 7. Early voting begins on October 18.

Here’s what you need to know about the three candidates running for the District 2 Supreme Court seat:

John Michael Guidry

Guidry, 62, is the most seasoned candidate in the race. He ran for the Supreme Court in 2012 but dropped out, losing to Justice Jefferson Hughes.

Plaintiffs in the 2019 federal lawsuit called Guidry’s previous campaign a textbook example of a more qualified black candidate unable to overcome “racial appeals” in predominantly white constituencies. Despite being the top vote-getter of eight candidates in the 2012 primary, Guidry lost to Hughes by about 5 1/2 percentage points in a head-to-head race less than five weeks later.

That race was for a seat in a Supreme Court district where, according to statistics from the secretary of state’s office, nearly 63% of eligible voters at the time were white.

This time around, Guidry has already been endorsed by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, the state’s largest business organization, along with political action committees for other labor unions. LABI called him a “conscientious jurist” with a history of rulings supporting free markets and fair business in Louisiana.

The East Baton Rouge native is currently serving his third full term as a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeal, a position he has held since 1997. During that time, Guidry has written more than 1,800 judicial decisions, ruled on another 3,600 cases and estimates he has handled thousands of other appeals. Since 1988, Guidry has served as an adjunct professor at Southern University Law Center. He likened his experience to that of a specialized cardiac surgeon rather than a two-year resident.

“When you’re dealing with life, liberty and property, you’re dealing with people’s lives,” he said. “So what people want is the most qualified, experienced judge to hear their cases.”

Guidry represents the only African-American on the First Circuit bench, elected from the only black-majority district on the appeals court’s ballot. There are 11 other judges on the circuit.

In January 2023, Guidry became the first Black chief justice to be sworn in in the capital city’s nearly 120-year history of the court.

Guidry’s political career spans more than 30 years. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1991 and became a senator from East Baton Rouge two years later.

“I’m incredibly excited. This is an opportunity to bring my 26-plus years of experience to the Supreme Court,” Guidry said Friday. “I’ve taught law school for over 35 years. I’ve written the law as a member of the House and Senate. And I’ve been interpreting the law for over 26 years. I think that makes me uniquely qualified to serve on our state’s highest court of appeals.”

Marcus Jager

Marcus Hunter, 45, is running from the northern corners of the district and brings with him a lineage of attorneys and legislators. His father, Willie Hunter Jr., was a Monroe representative for 16 years and chaired the state Legislative Black Caucus. His brother, Daniel, is an attorney in Monroe. The father and two sons worked together in a family law firm, where a young Marcus Hunter began his legal career. He later became a staff attorney for North Louisiana Legal Services and did pro bono work for civil litigants across the state.

Hunter’s background also includes time in the legislature and the judiciary. He took his seat on the Second Circuit Court of Appeal, based in Shreveport, in May 2021.

Prior to that, Hunter served for nearly three years as a state judge in the 4th Judicial District, where he heard cases in Ouachita and Morehouse parishes.

He began presiding over cases after serving a term and a half as a State House representative from Monroe. Before becoming a legislator, Hunter earned his stripes when he spent three years as a public defender in Bossier, Caddo and Ouachita parishes.

As a Louisiana legislator, Hunter sued the secretary of state to increase the number of early voting days in the 2014 election. He also helped bring cleaner water to St. Joseph Parish.

He acknowledged his predecessors for their fight in the early 1990s to pave the way for people like retired Justice Bernette Joshua Johnson, who became the first black justice on the Louisiana Supreme Court. He also thanked the current legislature for passing a new judicial map.

“My goal is to bring continued fairness and impartiality to all individuals in this state — regardless of their background, regardless of their sexuality, regardless of their color, regardless of their socioeconomic status,” he said. “This will not be a short-term thing for me. If people support me, I have the opportunity to bring a well-rounded, long-term vision and impact to the Supreme Court. For decades to come, not one term.”

Leslie Ricard Rooms

Ricard Chambers, 43, brings a unique skill set to the race that she says sets her apart from her opponents. She has been a prosecutor, a behind-the-scenes political strategist and a policy adviser.

In April, she became chief of staff of the Louisiana Housing Corporation, a Baton Rouge-based nonprofit that provides housing programs to low- and moderate-income renters and homebuyers.

Before working in the private sector, Ricard Chambers served for three years as Chief Administrative Officer in the office of Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome. From 2018 to 2022, she served on then-Governor Bel Edward’s executive counsel team and as one of his criminal justice policy advisors.

Though she’s never worn the black robe, the St. Helena Parish resident is no stranger to litigation. She ran her own law firm for nearly 13 years and was a prosecutor for 8 1/2 years, handling cases for the East Baton Rouge District Attorney’s Office. Ricard Chambers said she had to make critical decisions in deciding which cases to prosecute and how to prosecute them, and in defending Bel Edwards’ reform efforts.

Ricard Chambers pointed to the rise in crime following the COVID-19 pandemic and the opioid crisis that has ravaged Baton Rouge. She wants to help promote specialty court programs for substance abuse, domestic violence, mental health and hopes to work with lower courts to expand the roster of specialized caseloads that can address other issues plaguing the community.

“In my years as a prosecutor I have seen how effective specialist courts can be and have been,” said Ricard Chambers. “I want to contribute to the rest of the judges, either by expanding the specialist court programs or by looking at how we can make the best use of the programs we have.”