Chisom v. Jindal, Civil Action No. 86–4075.

Citation890 F.Supp.2d 696
Decision Date01 September 2012
Docket NumberCivil Action No. 86–4075.
PartiesRonald CHISOM, et al., Plaintiffs v. Bobby JINDAL, et al., Defendants.
CourtUnited States District Courts. 5th Circuit. United States District Court (Eastern District of Louisiana)

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Ronald Lawrence Wilson, Ronald L. Wilson, Attorney at Law, William Patrick Quigley, Davida Finger, Loyola Law School Clinic, New Orleans, LA, for Plaintiffs.

Merietta Spencer Norton, Secretary of State, Elizabeth Baker Murrill, State Of Louisiana–Office of the Governor, Baton Rouge, LA, Kevin Richard Tully, Elizabeth Skelly Cordes, Esmond Phelps Gay, Howard Carter Marshall, Christovich & Kearney, LLP, New Orleans, LA, for Defendants.

ORDER AND REASONS

SUSIE MORGAN, District Judge.

Before the Court are several pending motions: (1) plaintiff-intervenor Justice Bernette Johnson's (“Justice Johnson”) “Motions to (A) Reopen Case, (B) to Join as Defendants Justices Kimball, Victory, Knoll, Weimer, Guidry, and Clark of the Louisiana Supreme Court, (C) for Contempt Against Justices Kimball, Weimer, Guidry, and Clark;” 1(2) a Motion to Reopen and Enforce Consent Decree, to Add Defendants, and to Stay Proceedings in the Louisiana Supreme Court 2 filed by plaintiffs Marie Bookman, Ronald Chisom, and Marc Morial (collectively, the Chisom Plaintiffs); (3) a Motion to Stay Proceedings 3 filed by Justice Johnson and the Chisom Plaintiffs; (4) a Motion for Voluntary Dismissal 4 filed by Justice Johnson; and (5) a Motion to Dismiss Pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(B),” 5 filed by the State of Louisiana (the “State”), Office of the Governor, and Governor Bobby Jindal (Governor Jindal) (collectively, the “State”).

In addition to the above motions, plaintiff-intervenor the United States of America (“United States”) filed a “Memorandum in Support of Motions to Include Chisom Service Toward Any Calculation of Tenure on the Louisiana Supreme Court 6 and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (“NAACP”) filed, as an amicus curiae, a brief “In Support of Plaintiffs and PlaintiffIntervenors for the Inclusion of Justice Bernette J. Johnson's Years of Service as the Chisom Justice In the Calculation of Her Seniority on the Louisiana Supreme Court.” 7 The City of New Orleans also filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Justice Johnson and the Chisom Plaintiffs. 8 A more detailed look at the flurry of pleadings filed in this matter over the course of the last two months will follow.

Justice Johnson's and the Chisom Plaintiffs' motions to reopen both are considered as motions to interpret the Consent Judgment entered into by the parties and approved by the Court on August 21, 1992, 970 F.2d 1408 (5th Cir.1992),9 as amended on January 3, 2000 (“Consent Judgment”). 10 The Court finds that the interpretation of the Consent Judgment is within its inherent jurisdiction. For the reasons set forth below, the motions to interpret the Consent Judgment are granted and the State's motion to dismiss those same motions is denied. The Court finds that the Consent Judgment provides for Justice Johnson's service on the Louisiana Supreme Court (Supreme Court) from November 16, 1994, to October 7, 2000, to be credited to her tenure on the court for all purposes under Louisiana law. As the Supreme Court held in Perschall v. State, 96–322 (La.7/1/97), 697 So.2d 240, 260, the State, including the Supreme Court as an arm of the State, is bound by the terms of the Consent Judgment.

Justice Johnson's and the Chisom Plaintiffs' motions for involuntary joinder and contempt are denied. Justice Johnson's and the Chisom Plaintiffs' motion for a stay of the Supreme Court is denied as moot. Justice Johnson's and the Chisom Plaintiff's motions for injunctive relief are denied. Justice Johnson's motion to substitute Governor Jindal as a party is dismissed as moot. Justice Johnson's motion for voluntary dismissal is granted with respect to Jerry M. Fowler in his Capacity as Commissioner of Elections of the State of Louisiana and with respect to James H. Brown in his Capacity as Secretary of the State of Louisiana. Likewise, Justice Johnson's motion for voluntary dismissal of the claims against the Office of the Secretary of the State of Louisiana is also granted.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY AND FACTUAL BACKGROUND

In 1986, the Chisom Plaintiffs, along with three other registered voters in Orleans Parish, Louisiana, and a nonprofit voter education group, filed a class action complaint against three Louisiana officials in their official capacities, seeking to change the State's method for electing justices to the Supreme Court. By suing these officials in their official capacities, the Chisom Plaintiffs were in effect suing the State.11 At the time, the system for electing justices was contained in La.Rev.Stat. § 13:101, which provided that the State was divided into six Supreme Court Districts,” with five of the six Supreme Court Districts electing one justice each, and the other district, the First Supreme Court District,” electing two justices. The First Supreme Court District, which included four parishes, 12 elected two “at-large” justices. The Chisom Plaintiffs argued that this system impermissibly diluted the voting strength of the minority voters in Orleans Parish, in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 42 U.S.C. § 1973.13

After six years of litigation, involving numerous appeals to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (“Fifth Circuit”) and one successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the parties entered into a Consent Judgment, and Judge Charles Schwartz signed the document on August 21, 1992. The efficacy of the Consent Judgment was contingent upon legislation being enacted by the Louisiana Legislature to codify its terms. Act 512 of 1992 was duly enacted and went into effect on June 22, 1992.

In 1995, New Orleans attorney Clement Perschall, Jr. sued the State, alleging that Act 512, which created an extra seat on the State's Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and called for the Supreme Court to immediately assign the judge elected to that seat to the Supreme Court, violated the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. The Supreme Court agreed with Perschall and held Act 512 to be unconstitutional, but found that the State was still obligated to comply with the Consent Judgment, saying:

We realize that Act 512 does not exist in a vacuum. The State argues, and we agree, the Act and the Chisom Consent Judgment are separate and independent methods by which the negotiated remedy was implemented. Although the Act falls by this judgment, we recognize the status quo remains intact under the Chisom Consent Judgment. Consequently, this court as it is currently composed shall continue to function as a de jure court with its actions valid and effectual. We emphasize that the court-approved settlement in Chisom, which is under the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, is not affected by this judgment.

See Perschall, 697 So.2d at 260.

In reaching its conclusion in Perschall, the Supreme Court recounted the history of Act 512, as follows:

Act 512 of 1992: Origins and Purpose

In the 1992 Regular Legislative Session, Senator Charles D. Jones filed Senate Bill 1255, proposing to divide the first and third districts of the Court of Appeal, Second Circuit into two elections sections, each having one section with a majority black population and voter registration. In this original form, SB 1255 was read for the first and second time by title and referred to the Senate Judiciary A Committee, which discussed the bill in open committee on June 2, 1992. Senator Jones, together with Judge Bill Roberts, testified before the committee, and proposed a sweeping amendment to the bill which placed it largely in the posture that it finally passed the legislature and became Act 512. The clear purpose of the amendment, reflected by hearing transcripts, was to draft and pass legislation to aid in effectuating settlement of the Chisom case then pending before the Fifth Circuit. Before the committee, Judge Roberts explained:

Senator Kelly: Does this settle the Chisom case?

....

Judge Roberts:

This is part of it. We then have to have a Consent Decree approved by the Fifth Circuit and Judge Schwartz. This is a part of it, but we felt that we needed to get the bill out and on the floor so that-because its going to take us a few more days. We have worked on drafts, we have met with the Supreme Court a couple of times. I've had conversations with lawyers for the plaintiffs. We have not yet agreed on any exact wording on Chisom. If we do not agree, this bill is ineffective. If you notice there is a provision in the amendment that provides that unless—if the matter is not settled, then this bill is null and void.

Minutes at 55, Louisiana State Senate, Judiciary A Committee (June 2, 1992). The exigency that Judge Roberts alluded to was prompted by the fact that while the legislature was in session, all parties involved in Chisom were attempting to settle the lengthy Chisom litigation. Senator Jones later explained to the committee that during the month of June 1992, the Justice Department was going to review drafts of the consent decree and “this bill, and “the person who's [sic] over the entire Civil Rights Division for the Department of Justice is going to pass on it.” Id. Therefore, the bill's sponsor was attempting to place this legislation on the fast track to aid in effectuating settlement. Thus, the parties sought concurrent enactments to effectuate the case's settlement: (1) a legislative act, and (2) a federal consent judgment memorializing such act.

With that backdrop, the substantive amendments to SB 1255, converting the second circuit reapportionment bill to a supreme court reapportionment bill, consisted of a two-fold enactment. First, the bill would enact La.R.S. 13:101.1, relative to reapportionment of supreme court districts. Section 101.1 created a supreme court district comprised of Orleans Parish for the purpose of...

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