Louisiana Republican Gov. Jeff Landry quietly signed legislation Thursday abolishing the elected office of Orleans Parish criminal court clerk, blocking Calvin Duncan — an exonerated man who won the seat with more than two-thirds of the vote in November — from taking office next Monday. The bill’s signing, confirmed by a spokesperson for the Louisiana secretary of state, came without public ceremony and just days before Duncan was scheduled to be sworn in.
Republicans say the law consolidates the parish’s civil and criminal court clerks into a single office, bringing New Orleans in line with every other parish in the state. The existing civil clerk position will absorb the criminal clerk’s responsibilities — an arrangement proponents cast as a long-overdue efficiency measure. Landry told The Associated Press that eliminating Duncan’s elected office was about improving government efficiency and “cleaning up a system in Orleans Parish that has been plagued by dysfunction and corruption for years.”
The state legislative auditor estimates the consolidation will save the state about $27,000 and the city about $233,000 annually, but the report added that the long-term costs of merging distinct offices, physical locations, and incompatible case-management systems are “unknown.” The legislation also shifts roughly $1.17 million in state expenditures to the parish.
Democrats describe the repeal as a direct override of the will of voters in a predominantly Black parish that is a Democratic stronghold. In a legislative committee hearing last month, Rep. Mandie Landry — a New Orleans Democrat who is not related to the governor — called the Republican effort “atrocious” and warned it could set a precedent for eliminating other elected positions in the parish. “We’re doing something because powerful people don’t like him,” she said of Duncan.
Rep. Edmond Jordan, another Democrat, told the bill’s Republican author, Sen. Jay Morris, that the legislation was an assault on representative democracy. “Mr. Duncan was elected by 68% of the vote in a city that’s majority African American. This is the will of the people, and what your bill attempts to do is usurp the will of the people,” Jordan said.
Duncan, a 63-year-old Democrat, spent 28 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. His conviction was vacated in 2021 after evidence emerged that police officers had lied in court. His name now appears on the National Registry of Exonerations. On the campaign trail, he promised to help repair the criminal justice system that had failed him.
Even before the bill reached the governor’s desk, supporters held a ceremonial swearing-in for Duncan on the courthouse steps, drawing hundreds of people. Duncan told lawmakers that during his campaign he spoke with many residents who said they typically stayed home on election day. “Now, this bill tells people exactly what they had believed — that their vote doesn’t count,” he said.
Duncan has asked a federal judge to allow him to take office as scheduled. He framed the move in historical terms. “It’s a sad thing to see the state government repeating what happened to Black public officials during Reconstruction,” he said. “They will do what they do, and I will do whatever I have to do to vindicate the voters of New Orleans and make sure that what happened to me never happens to anybody else.”
Morris, the bill’s author who represents a district hours from New Orleans, acknowledged that the law was timed to take effect before Duncan could begin a four-year term and that lawsuits are anticipated. “It’s unfortunate for Mr. Duncan, I concede that,” Morris told lawmakers in April. “He seems very nice, but we don’t make policy around here for just one person.”
The clerk consolidation is part of a larger Republican push during the current legislative session to overhaul the New Orleans judiciary. Several other bills propose abolishing additional elected judicial positions in the parish. Those proposals, however, would phase out offices after current officeholders complete their terms — a distinction that has sharpened criticism that Duncan was singled out.