Jim Beam column:Landry loves to file lawsuits – American Press

Louisiana’s Republican state Attorney General Jeff Landry is busy running for governor with plenty of money in his campaign account. However, he always finds time to file lawsuits.

Prosecutors are Landry’s latest targets. He is challenging the ability of prosecutors to reduce prison terms. They do it to correct an overly punitive sentence, forestall a court fight over new evidence, or bestow a favor.

Judges have granted those post-conviction deals, according to The Advocate, which added that the Legislature in 2021 enshrined in a bill the procedure that is backed by prosecutors.

Landry claims the law is “facially unconstitutional” because it grants judges a clemency power reserved for the governor. The state Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday over Landry’ s challenge of one man’s conviction for murder who was granted a reprieve last year.

On the legislative front, state Rep. Debbie Villio, R-Kenner, has filed a bill that Landry is supporting. It would make certain confidential juvenile court records public in three parishes. Those happen to be Caddo, East Baton Rouge, and Orleans parishes, all of which are predominantly Black.

The Associated Press said advocates for incarcerated youths oppose the bill with some calling it blatantly racist. They fear it would have a detrimental generational effect on juvenile delinquents, some of whom have not been convicted of a violent crime but have simply been accused of one.

The co-executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights said, “You have a (teenager) whose brain is not fully developed and who has made a mistake. And 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, they still aren’t able to put that behind them.”

Landry said, “This plan will expose who in the system should be held accountable for the failures; when (district attorneys) fail to prosecute, when judges fail to act, when police are handcuffed instead of the criminals.”

The Advocate was correct when it said in an editorial that limiting the legislation to majority Black cities plays to stereotypes, and publicizing the records goes against everything known about how to steer troubled youths toward a better path.

Yes, there are some violent teenagers, but should the majority who don’t commit major crimes have their records exposed for a lifetime as well?

The AP said another case pits Landry against voting rights advocates and the U.S. Justice Department. Landry’s office argues that a 1992 federal court agreement that led to a Black justice being elected to the once all-white state Supreme Court is no longer needed.

Attorneys for the original plaintiffs in the voting rights case and the U.S. Justice Department said the state has presented no evidence to show it would not revert to old voting patterns that denied Black voters representation on the court.

Other opponents of Landry’s argument said racially polarized voting remains. They cite as evidence the Legislature’s refusal last year to add a second mostly Black congressional district.

Landry in a letter to The Advocate argues his juvenile and Supreme Court actions aren’t racist. However, in both instances Blacks are the major targets.

When Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin in 2020 where certified results showed President Joe Biden was the electoral winner over former President Donald Trump, Landry joined the suit, as he has often done with other Republican attorneys general.

The goal of the attorneys general was to overturn the results, but the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the suit.

In 2021, Landry sued the federal government for a requirement that healthcare workers be vaccinated against COVID-19. He called it an “unconstitutional and immoral attack” on health care workers.

Landry has sued Gov. Edwards a number of times over various issues.

Three candidates trying to replace Landry at an East Baton Rouge Parish Republican Party meeting promised more of the same. Liz Murrill, a Landry lieutenant, said, “I have over 35 cases now pending against the Biden administration. “We have to protect our sovereignty,”  Murrill said.

Marty Maley, a prosecutor, said, “I commend Jeff and Liz for taking on that fight in Washington, D.C., for us and fighting against so many of those who would apply government overreach and try to take away our fundamental liberties.”

State Rep. John Stefanski of Crowley said, “You have to be able to check the federal government when they come after oil and gas.”

John Belton, a north Louisiana district attorney, is also running for AG as an independent.

Do we really need a Landry clone in the AG’s office? The real one we have had for nearly eight years has been a political opportunist.