Louisiana legislators passed two out of three bills aimed at reforming the Orleans Parish court system as the 2026 Legislative Session came to a close Monday (June 1), leaving the parish with two court systems, one clerk and potentially three fewer judges.
The package of bills aimed to cut what supporters called waste in the Orleans Parish Court system, highlighted by efforts to cut out Calvin Duncan’s office at the Orleans Criminal District Court. Orleans is the only parish to have separate civil and criminal courts.
SB 256, by West Monroe Sen. Jay Morris, combines the civil and criminal clerks of court in one position and passed the Senate on a 25-11 vote and the House on a 63-28 vote. It was signed into law as Act 15 and is currently the target of several lawsuits, including one from Duncan.
Duncan alleges the legislature unfairly took away an elected position. The Louisiana Supreme Court endorsed Act 15 and ruled that Civil Clerk Chelsey Richard Napoleon must legally take over Duncan’s position. The ruling also barred the New Orleans City Council from creating a new position of combined clerk and appointing someone to the position as interim clerk.
Three judge positions in Orleans Parish were cut by SB 217, also by Morris. The bill is awaiting Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature.
Originally, the bill called for the three judges with the least seniority to be cut. While they weren’t named in the bill, they are Section A Judge Simone Levine, Section J Judge John Fuller and Section I Judge Leon Roché. However, two days before the session ended, a conference committee swapped Roché for District E Judge Rhonda Goode-Douglass, while also naming District Judges A, E and J specifically. Members of the committee did not say why they made the swap; Morris credited the governor’s office and the Orleans delegation. The bill was presented on the final day of the session and passed the House on a 62-34 vote.
In an interview with the Times-Picayune, Landry decried the swap as “ridiculous.”
“They’re taking the best judge off the bench,” he added, referring to Goode-Douglass.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Landry clarified that he would sign the bill. He claimed the reason lawmakers substituted Goode-Douglass for Roché is that Roché is the cousin of a Democratic state senator. New Orleans Representative Gary Carter confirmed to the Times-Picayune that he and Roché are cousins, but called the notion that he changed the bill to protect his cousin “offensive.”
HB 911, by Baton Rouge Rep. Dixon McMakin, was the only bill not to pass. It would have wholly combined the civil and criminal courts themselves. The bill never made it out of the House.
