John Michael Guidry will run unopposed for an open seat on Louisiana’s Supreme Court following a ruling this week that disqualified the other two candidates on the ballot.
The decision was handed down by the Supreme Court Tuesday night, rendering two candidates ineligible to run because they didn’t meet certain qualification requirements.
The election, which will be held during the general election on November 5, is being held in a new majority-Black state Supreme Court district that was created recently.
If Guidry, a current judge on the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, does indeed win the election, he’ll become the second sitting Black justice on the state Supreme Court and the second Democrat. There are seven total seats on the state Supreme Court.
In the almost 120-year history of Louisiana’s state Supreme Court, only three justices have been Black. Each of them were elected from a district near New Orleans that’s majoritively Black.
This year, though, the state Legislature created a second district that’s made up majoritively of minority groups. That district is near the state’s capital of Baton Route, and extends to the Mississippi River, covering 13 parishes in total in the northeastern part of Louisiana.
There were three candidates for the position, but that was whittled down to just Guidry after the other two candidates didn’t provide adequate proof that they filed their tax returns in a timely manner.
Those candidates were Leslie Chambers, who serves as the Louisiana Housing Corporation’s chief of staff, and Marcus Hunter who sits on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals as a judge.
In explaining the high court’s 5-2 decision, Chief Justice John Weimer said:
“While I would much prefer seeing multiple candidates participate in the electoral process to facilitate the voters having a choice in deciding who should serve them, I cannot ignore the clear facts or the applicable law which is equally clear.”
Two justices dissented in the ruling, including Jefferson D. Hughes III, who 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.”
In a lower court hearing for this case, both Chambers and Hunter indicated they thought their taxes were filed successfully. To qualify to run for the state Supreme Court, Louisiana Law requires all candidates to file federal and state taxes for each of the five years leading up to the election in question.
The Louisiana Department of Revenue said that they never received Chambers’ 2022 tax return that she said she filed using TurboTax. An accountant who works for Hunter said he believed that his clients taxes were filed successfully for all three years that were in question.
While both candidates fought for their ability to run, they have now exhausted all the legal options they have in the state court system.
They still could appeal that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but they don’t have much time to do so. Early voting begins in less than two months, which Election Day a little more than two months away.
