Louisiana
Louisiana Democrats endorse Fields for new majority-Black congressional district • Louisiana Illuminator
The Louisiana Democratic State Central Committee voted Saturday to formalize its support for state Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, in his bid to return to congress in the state’s new majority-Black 6th Congressional District.
Fields got the state party’s official nod alongside U.S. Rep Troy Carter, who is running for his third term in the 2nd District, Louisiana’s other majority-Black seat.
Also endorsed were Mel Manuel, running to unseat U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, in the 1st District, Sadi Summerlin, running against Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Lafayette, in the 3rd District and Nick Laborde, running for the open Public Service Commission District 2 seat.
“I think that with the talent and the combination of excitement … I think we’re gonna be able to prepare all our candidates for victory in November,” Louisiana Democratic Party Chairman Randal Gaines said in an interview with the Illuminator.
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Fields previously served two terms in congress in the 1990s, when Louisiana had two majority-Black congressional districts until Fields’ district was thrown out as an unconstitutional gerrymander.
Louisiana had a single majority Black district until earlier this year, when the Legislature drew another to comply with a federal court ruling that its congressional redistricting plan adopted in 2022 unconstitutionally discriminated against Black voters.
If elected, Fields will replace U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, R-Baton Rouge, who decided against running for re-election after the GOP-dominated Legislature chose his district as a sacrificial lamb to become the new majority-Black seat.
Should he win the 6th District seat, Fields will be slightly senior to Carter in the U.S House, as Fields served two full terms while Carter has served less than a full year of his first term after winning a special election in April 2021 to replace former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, who resigned to join President Joe Biden’s administration.
Both will face Democratic opposition.
Fields, Quentin Anderson and Peter Williams received nominations for the party endorsement, with Fields’ 95 supporters on the Democratic State Central Committee easily defeating Anderson’s 45 and Williams’ four.
A fourth Democratic candidate, Wilken Jones, did not receive a nomination.
Former state Sen. Elbert Guillory, a Democrat-turned-Republican from Opelousas who is also Black, is also running for the 6th District seat. He’s received the Louisiana GOP’s endorsement.
Carter will face several Republican challengers as well as fellow Democrat Devin Davis, who received 21 votes for the endorsement to Carter’s 124.
Davis alleged State Central Committee members were threatened with retaliation if they did not back Carter. In interviews after the meeting, several members disagreed with Davis’ assessment.
Public Service Commissioner Davante Lewis said there were disagreements within the party leadership about how to handle endorsements, but there were no threats of retaliation.
Though the state Democratic Party does not endorse judicial candidates, two candidates for a soon-to-be-vacant Louisiana Supreme Court seat stumped for votes. District 2 on the court was redrawn this year to be majority Black.
Leslie Chambers, a first-time candidate who worked for former Gov. John Bel Edwards and for East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, touted her bipartisanship working on criminal justice reforms in the Edwards administration.
John Michael Guidry, a judge on Louisiana’s First Circuit Court of Appeals, is also running for the high court seat. He also noted his record of bipartisanship, touting endorsements from labor groups and EAST PAC, a political action committee affiliated with the conservative Louisiana Association of Business and Industry that frequently stymies Democratic priorities in the Legislature.
A third Democrat in the race, Marcus Hunter, was not present.
Elections for Congress, Public Service Commission and the Louisiana Supreme Court will be held Nov. 5. If no candidate receives a majority of votes, the two top vote-getters will meet in a Dec. 7 runoff.
All of Louisiana’s Republican incumbents in Congress, except for U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, will face Democratic opposition.
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Louisiana
Federal appeals court upholds Texas’ Ten Commandments law. What does it mean for Louisiana?
A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld a Texas law requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments, just weeks after the same court allowed a similar Louisiana law to take effect.
A majority of judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Texas’ law, which is nearly identical to Louisiana’s, is constitutional and does not violate students’ religious freedom. In February, the court lifted an injunction on Louisiana’s law, which cleared schools to put up the posters, but the judges said it was too early to rule on that law’s constitutionality.
Tuesday’s ruling could bode well for Louisiana’s law if it eventually returns to the 5th Circuit, considered the country’s most conservative federal court of appeals.
In their majority opinion, the judges rejected the argument that posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms would pressure students to honor the biblical mandates or adopt particular beliefs.
“To plaintiffs, merely exposing children to religious language is enough to make the displays engines of coercive indoctrination. We disagree,” the majority wrote about the Texas law, known as S.B. 10. A minority of the court’s active judges dissented.
Even though Tuesday’s ruling only addressed the Texas case, defenders of Louisiana’s legislation celebrated it as a victory. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the 5th Circuit’s argument in upholding Texas’ law was identical to the one Louisiana made in defense of its law.
“Our law clearly was always constitutional,” she posted on X, “and I am grateful that the Fifth Circuit has now definitively agreed with us.”
Louisiana’s Republican-controlled Legislature passed the law in 2024, which requires all public K-12 schools and colleges to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom. A group of parents quickly challenged the law in court, and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that stopped the state from enforcing the law.
In February, the 5th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, saying it had been premature to block the law before it took effect. The judges said they could not rule on the law’s constitutionality before seeing how it played out in schools.
But in the case of Texas’ law, which that state’s Republican-led Legislature passed in 2025, the court did rule on the merits.
Rejecting arguments made by attorneys for the Texas families who challenged the law, the 5th Circuit majority said that requiring public schools to post the Ten Commandments does not amount to the government endorsing a particular religion, which the U.S. Constitution forbids. The law also does not impose religious beliefs on students, the judges wrote.
“As noted, S.B. 10 authorizes no religious instruction and gives teachers no license to contradict children’s religious beliefs (or their parents’),” the majority opinion says. “No child is made to recite the Commandments, believe them, or affirm their divine origin.”
The Texas families were represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Texas, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, with the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP serving as pro bono counsel. The same groups, including Louisiana’s ACLU chapter, represented the Louisiana families.
In a statement Tuesday, the organizations said they are “extremely disappointed” by the 5th Circuit’s ruling, adding that they expect to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“The First Amendment safeguards the separation of church and state, and the freedom of families to choose how, when and if to provide their children with religious instruction,” the groups said. “This decision tramples those rights.”
Nearly all major industries in Louisiana added jobs over the past year, signaling momentum for a stronger future, according to a recent report from Leaders for a Better Louisiana.
The organizat…
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SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) — Police say a man shot and killed eight children, including seven of his own, following a domestic dispute in Shreveport.
The incident took place early Sunday morning, April 19, on West 79th Street in the Cedar Grove neighborhood. According to the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office, the victims included three boys and five girls, aged between three and 11-years-old. Seven of the children were siblings, while one was a cousin. Two adult females were also injured, including one who was shot at a home located in the 500 block of Harrison Street.
One of the adults was inside the home on West 79th Street when the children were killed. She managed to escape through a window with two of the children and reached the roof. The woman jumped down with one of the children. Unfortunately, the other child did not manage to escape. Police later found his body on the roof with a gunshot wound. The surviving child was taken to the hospital with a broken leg.
The children were identified by their mothers as Jayla (age 3), Shayla (age 5), Kayla (age 6), Layla (age 7), Markaydon (age 10), Sariahh (age 11), Khedarrion (age 6), and Braylon (age 5).
Authorities say the suspect and father of the victims, Shamar Elkins, was the only person who fired shots that led to the juveniles’ deaths.
Authorities noted that Elkins stole a vehicle near West 79th Street after he shot the victims. He was pursued by patrol officers into Bossier Parish, where they discharged their weapons and fatally shot him on Brompton Lane. Louisiana State Police will take over the investigation involving the officers.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux expressed his thoughts on the matter, saying, “We have a hurting community. We have hurting families. We have hurting police officers, coroner’s personnel, fire department, sheriff people, and this affects the entire community. We all mourn with these families. I ask, it’s a Sunday morning. I ask all of you who are, who are listening, who might be able to. Pray at your services this morning for not just this family, for all the victims, for the victims who are at the hospital, and for the Cedar Grove community and for the community at large.”
Attorney General Liz Murrill also commented on the tragic shooting, stating, “Multiple law enforcement agencies are investigating this tragic situation. We do not yet know all the details, but I am deeply saddened by the senseless loss of life. I’m praying for the victims and their family members in the wake of this devastating violence.”
According to the Director of Strategy and Communications, Mary Nash-Wood, two of the children attended Summer Grove, and at least four attended Linwood Charter School.
The police have not determined a motive. More updates will be provided as the information becomes available.
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