LDF and Other Civil Rights Groups File Amicus Brief Urging Louisiana Supreme Court to Reject Efforts to Overturn Orleans Parish Election

Read a PDF of our statement here.

The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) yesterday filed an amicus brief in the case Crockett v. Landry, concerning Louisiana's attempt to throw out tens of thousands of votes by invalidating a recent election for the Orleans Parish Clerk of the Criminal Court. The brief places the efforts of Louisiana state officials to strip voters of their fundamental right to elect a candidate of choice in historical context and highlights the egregious harm their actions have caused to Orleans Parish voters and democratic principles.

Louisiana state officials have threatened to prosecute multiple Black officeholders who spoke up for democratic values under the so-called "usurper" law, in a move reminiscent of the voter suppression in the State beginning during Reconstruction and continuing into the Jim Crow era that sought to silence Black voters and nullify their electoral choices.

LDF filed the brief with counsel John Adcock and Tracie Washington on behalf of LDF, the Louisiana State Conference of the NAACP, Louisiana Justice Institute, Louisiana Urban League, Lower 9th Ward Voter's Coalition, Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, Voice of the Experienced, Black Voters Matter Capacity Building Institute, Campaign Legal Center, Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and the National Urban League.

The signatories of this brief are nonprofit, nonpartisan civil rights and racial justice organizations. LDF and the other signatories issued the following joint statement:

"Elections are sacred to the people and communities that we serve. Louisiana state officials have ignored the will of the people of New Orleans. They seek to silence Black voters by throwing out the results of an election and instead installing an unelected official. This is an abuse of power. When local officials courageously stepped up to protect voters, the state invoked a law that is a relic of Jim Crow and the voter suppression that followed Reconstruction. We refuse to accept this mistreatment of voters and this outrageous denial of the most basic and precious right to choose their representatives."

In 2025, over 56,000 residents of Orleans Parish voted in a special election for Criminal Court clerk, which Calvin Duncan won in a landslide despite the vocal opposition of Louisiana's Attorney General. Rather than accept the will of the voters, the Legislature abolished Mr. Duncan's position, consolidating the criminal and civil clerk of court roles - which have long been separate positions - and installing the unelected incumbent civil clerk in the new role. Voters and civil rights organizations are now fighting these efforts, which have the effect of nullifying every single vote cast in the 2025 election. Heeding calls from voters, the New Orleans city council began moving forward with a special election for the new office and exercised its authority to appoint an acting clerk to hold the position in the meantime.

In response, the Louisiana Attorney General has threatened to prosecute the elected leadership of New Orleans, a majority-Black city, who called for the new election. In so doing, the Attorney General adopted a strategy first used to nullify Black electoral power by refusing to seat Black elected officials in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. It was later codified by the Louisiana Legislature in 1960 to legitimate defiance of school desegregation orders. The use of the law to once again deny the will of Black voters is a reminder that the struggle for equal rights is ongoing. LDF's efforts to stop Louisiana from invaliding this election is about more than one election: It is about our ongoing fight against the suppression of Black political power.

Read the full brief here .

###

Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.