LSU Manship School Statehouse Bureau

Published: April 5, 2024

By: Claire Sullivan and Piper Naudin LSU Manship School News Service

BATON ROUGE—The House Education Committee voted 10-3 Thursday to advance a bill to require public schools to display the 10 Commandments.

House Bill 7l, by Rep. Dodie Horton, R-Haughton, is attempting to navigate the traditional legal divide between church and state.

Under the bill, which next goes to the House floor, the commandments would need to be displayed in a format of at least 11-by-4 inches.

Read more at Concordia Sentinel.

Published: March 1, 2024

By: Jacob Mathews LSU Manship School News Service

Photo by: Courtesy John M. Schroder Louisiana State Treasurer

By: By Jacob Mathews LSU Manship School News Service

Posted 10:31 AM, Mar 01, 2024

and last updated 10:31 AM, Mar 01, 2024

BATON ROUGE–-As Louisiana undertakes a massive overhaul of criminal justice laws, one of the most controversial changes is putting more 17-year-olds on trial for crimes as adults. The move backpedals on a measure passed seven years ago that treated teens under 18 as juveniles in most cases.

Anti-crime lawmakers, following the lead of sheriffs, prosecutors, and a newly elected Republican governor, are responding to a spike in juvenile violent crime – simple robbery, battery, carjacking, terrorism, kidnapping, assault and even murder and rape. They and Gov. Jeff Landry say adult gangs have been recruiting teenagers 17 years old and younger to commit crimes for which penalties will be lighter than those for adults.

Opponents argue that juvenile crime rates had been coming down since the “Raise the Age” law was passed in 2016 before rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some question whether the new laws will have harmful side-effects given that prosecutors already had leeway to charge juveniles as adults for the worst crimes.

According to reports by the state’s Office of Juvenile Justice, the number of youths serving time had begun easing again last year.

Read more at KATC.

Published: February 21, 2024

By: Madison Marong, LSU Manship News Service

BATON ROUGE— Protesters swarmed House hearing rooms Tuesday as a top law enforcement committee passed legislation that would expand capital punishment to include death by nitrogen gas and electrocution. The panel significantly boosted sentences for carjacking and penalties for so-called “rainbow” fentanyl sold to children.

It also tightened parole issues and prisoner rules which drew opposition from groups that aid formerly incarcerated people in voting and civic participation.

Punishment for carjackings and selling fentanyl to children came in a flurry of legislation that swept across the Capitol on Tuesday following a stirring speech the day before from newly-elected Gov. Jeff Landry. 

Landry, a former state Attorney General, ran on a get-tough-on-crime stance that would roll back scores of revisions made under his predecessor, Gov. John Bel Edwards. Chief among Landry’s positions was to restart capital punishment as a deterrent to what has been soaring crime rates in the state’s major cities.

Louisiana has not administered capital punishment by lethal injection since 2010.

Read more at BIZ.

Published: January 19, 2024

By: Elizabeth White and Claire Sullivan, LSU Manship School News Service

The Legislature on Friday passed the original congressional redistricting map backed by Gov. Jeff Landry after stripping out a House committee’s amendment that would have divided East Baton Rouge Parish into three congressional districts.

The bill now goes to Landry’s desk, along with a separate bill to approve his proposal to switch from open primary elections, in which candidates from all parties compete against each other, to more closed ones run by each party.

Read more at KATC.

Published: January 18, 2024

By: Elizabeth White

Photo by: MGN Online

By: Elizabeth White

Posted 7:57 PM, Jan 18, 2024

and last updated 7:57 PM, Jan 18, 2024

BATON ROUGE, La. — After hours of behind-the-scenes negotiations, the House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted 14-1 Thursday to pass an amended version of the congressional map backed by Gov. Jeff Landry.

The amendment to Senate Bill 8, authored by Sen. Glen Womack, R-Harrisonburg, was presented by Rep. Les Farnum, R-Calcasieu, and created by multiple senators.

The goal of the amendment was to keep from dividing Calcasieu and Ouachita parishes into more than one congressional district each. However, the amended version of the bill splits East Baton Rouge Parish into three congressional districts.

Read more at KATC.

Published: December 26, 2023

By:  Molly Ryan, Piper Naudin, LSU Manship School News Service, Eliza Stanley, Sanaa Dotson

In an important election year — featuring races for governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer, secretary of state, attorney general and several local government seats — Louisiana saw historically low voter turnout. Experts are still looking at why.

Only about 36% of registered voters cast ballots in October’s primary election, marking the lowest turnout in a Louisiana gubernatorial primary since 2011. The general election in November saw even lower turnout, when only about 23% of registered voters made it to the polls.

“This entire state didn’t show up,” said Ashley Shelton, president and CEO of the Power Coalition, a nonpartisan civic engagement group.

Turnout was significantly down among Democrats and Black Louisianans. And it was down in areas that traditionally lean more Democratic, like New Orleans.

Read more at 89.3 WRKF Baton Rouge.