Louisiana
Federal court reviews civil rights lawsuit alleging environmental racism in a Louisiana parish
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal appellate court is reviewing a civil rights lawsuit alleging a south Louisiana parish engaged in racist land-use policies to place polluting industries in majority-Black communities.
The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard oral arguments on Monday for a lawsuit filed by community groups claiming St. James Parish “intentionally discriminated against Black residents” by encouraging industrial facilities to be built in areas with predominantly Black populations “while explicitly sparing White residents from the risk of environmental harm.”
The groups, Inclusive Louisiana, Rise St. James and Mt. Triumph Baptist Church, seek a halt to future industrial development in the parish. They say they have suffered health impacts from pollution, diminished property values and violations of religious liberty as a result of the parish’s land use system.
The plaintiffs say that 20 of the 24 industrial facilities were in two sections of the parish with majority-Black populations when they filed the complaint in March 2023.
The parish is located along a heavily industrialized stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, known as the Chemical Corridor, often referred to by environmental groups as “Cancer Alley” because of the high levels of suspected cancer-causing pollution emitted there.
The lawsuit comes as the federal government has taken steps during the Biden administration to address the legacy of environmental racism. Federal officials have written stricter environmental protections and committed tens of billions of dollars in funding.
“The decisions made in this courtroom will resonate far beyond our borders, impacting frontline communities nationwide who are yearning for acknowledgment and accountability,” said Shamell Lavigne, a St. James Parish resident and a leader with Rise St. James, a local environmental justice organization. “We are advocating for our future and the wellbeing of our children.”
In November 2023, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana had dismissed the lawsuit against St. James Parish largely on procedural grounds, ruling the plaintiffs had filed their lawsuit too late. But he added, “this Court cannot say that their claims lack a basis in fact or rely on a meritless legal theory.”
Barbier had accepted the parish’s argument that the lawsuit hinged on its 2014 land-use plan, which generally shielded white neighborhoods from industrial development and left majority-Black neighborhoods, schools and churches without the same protections. The plan also described largely Black sections of the parish as “future industrial” sites, a classification described by the plaintiffs as a form of “racial cleansing.”
Regardless, the plaintiffs had missed the legal window to sue the parish by not filing their lawsuit within one year after the land-use plan was formalized, as required by statute of limitations laws, the judge had ruled.
During the appeals hearing, Fifth Circuit Court Judge Catharina Haynes said that the argument raised by the parish “basically makes it sound like if you didn’t sue within a year, well, heck, you can be discriminated against in a bunch of different ways for the rest of eternity.”
Carroll Devillier, Jr., a lawyer representing the parish, responded that residents had already had the opportunity to challenge the 2014 land use plan when it was being formulated. He also said the plaintiffs “have nothing” to prove they suffered from harms from discrimination in the year before they filed their lawsuit in March 2023.
Haynes also observed that parish officials, including those representing majority Black areas, had voted to support the 2014 land-use plan. “Why would you vote to discriminate against yourself?” she asked.
Pamela Spees, a lawyer for the Center of Constitutional Rights representing the plaintiffs, said the land-use plan could be approved by government officials but still reinforce discrimination.
After the hearing, Spees said that the approval of the land use plan had to be understood in the context of ongoing structural racism.
At its core, the lawsuit alleges civil rights violations under the 13th and 14th amendments, stating the land-use system in the parish allowing for industrial buildout primarily in majority-Black communities remains shaped by the history of slavery, white supremacy and Jim Crow laws and governance.
The parish’s 2014 land use plan is just one piece of evidence among many revealing persistent and ongoing discrimination by the parish, Spees said.
As evidence of more recent alleged discrimination, the lawsuit highlights the parish’s decision in August 2022 to impose a moratorium on large solar complexes after a proposed 3,900-acre (1,580-hectare) solar project upset residents of the mostly white neighborhood of Vacherie, who expressed concerns about lowering property values and debris from storms. The parish did not take up a request for a moratorium on heavy industrial expansion raised by the plaintiffs, the lawsuit states.
The parish’s lawyer, Devillier, Jr., told judges the solar moratorium had applied to the entire parish and that the plaintiffs’ request for a moratorium on industrial expansion, which initially came in the form of a letter sent by the plaintiffs in 2019, was “never formally considered” by the parish.
The lawsuit also argues the parish failed to identify and protect the likely hundreds of burial sites of enslaved people by allowing industrial facilities to build on and limit access to the areas, preventing the descendants of slaves from memorializing the sites. The federal judge tossed out that part of the lawsuit, noting the sites were on private property not owned by the parish.
Lawyers for St. James Parish have said the lawsuit employed overreaching claims and “inflammatory rhetoric.” Victor J. Franckiewicz, who has served as special counsel to St. James Parish for land-use matters since 2013, declined to comment after the hearing. St. James Parish did not respond to a request for comment.
“How can a judge rule a statute of limitations on clean air, clean water and clean soil? There should be none,” said Gail LeBoeuf, 72, a life-long St. James resident and a plaintiff in the case who co-founded Inclusive Louisiana.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in a 2003 report that St. James Parish ranked higher than the national average for certain cancer deaths. Both majority Black sections of the parish are ranked as having a high risk of cancer from toxic pollutants according to an EPA screening tool based on emissions reported by nearby facilities, the complaint noted.
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Jack Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96.
Jack Brook, The Associated Press
Louisiana
‘A little bit nervous’: Survivor of deadly Mall of Louisiana shooting makes emotional return
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – For the first time since surviving the deadly shooting at the Mall of Louisiana, Donnie Guillory made an emotional return to the mall on Wednesday, May 20.
Guillory was one of six people shot during the April shooting at the mall. Martha Odom, a high school senior from Lafayette, died from her injuries.
Guillory, a Special Olympics athlete, walked back through the mall with a special escort from Baton Rouge Police and the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office.
“Everybody is here today to see me,” Guillory said.
Guillory spent several days in the hospital before returning home. His family said one of the things he talked about most during recovery was getting back to the mall, where he spent time almost every day before the shooting.
Still, returning was emotional.
“I’m a little bit nervous. Nervous a little bit,” Guillory said.
Guillory’s father, Charles, said the support from law enforcement has meant a great deal to their family since the shooting.
He praised officers not only for helping save his son’s life, but for remaining involved throughout his recovery.
“You hear him say he’s a bit nervous,” Charles Guillory said. “He spends so much time in there with so many friends, I’m glad he’s able to go in there without being anxious about it.”
While the visit marked an important step forward for Donnie, his father said concerns about public safety remain.
“It’s something we need to address, because it’s not going to do any good to be happy today and have a problem two weeks from now,” he said.
Charles Guillory said he hopes businesses and community leaders continue looking for ways to improve safety measures moving forward.
“They need to look at what the mall is going to do and what other businesses are going to do to protect their patrons,” he said.
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Photos chronicle Louisiana history, culture and people
Bob Winans of Alexandria talks about the photos his father, the acclaimed Louisiana photographer Fonville Winans, took throughout his storied career.
When you’re driving along on a road trip, you may spot something unique on the side of the road and decide to pull over and explore.
Roadside attractions are often quirky landmarks that offer a nice reprieve from driving.
Fifty Grande, an American travel magazine, has compiled a list of the strangest roadside attractions in each state.
Abita Mystery House is Louisiana’s weirdest roadside attraction says Fifty Grande
Abita Mystery House, located in Abita Springs, is the weirdest roadside attraction in Louisiana, according to Fifty Grande.
This roadside attraction features a vintage service station, a 100-year-old Louisiana Creole cottage, an exhibition hall of memorabilia and junk, as well as the museum’s House of Shards.
The House of Shards is an old cottage decorated with thousands upon thousands of tile pieces, pottery shards, mirrors and glass. The building also houses an interesting collection of vintage bicycles.
Other exhibits at “Louisiana’s most eccentric museum” include a general store, car repair, comb collection, Airstream, “Bassigator,” “swamp ghost” and numerous art prints.
This folk-art environment, curated by Louisiana inventor and artist John Preble, is filled with thousands of found objects and homemade inventions. Here, visitors can observe artistic recreations of a Mardi Gras parade, New Orleans jazz funeral, rhythm and blues dance hall, haunted Southern plantation and more.
The weirdest roadside attraction in each state according to Fifty Grande
- Alabama: The Unclaimed Baggage Center
- Alaska: Igloo City
- Arizona: The Thing
- Arkansas: Thorncrown Chapel
- California: Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree
- Colorado: Rita the Rock Planter
- Connecticut: PEZ Visitor Center
- Delaware: Futuro House
- Florida: World’s Smallest Post Office
- Georgia: The Tree That Owns Itself
- Hawaii: Pineapple Garden Maze
- Idaho: Idaho Potato Hotel
- Illinois: World’s Largest Catsup Bottle
- Indiana: Martini-Drinking Pink Elephant
- Iowa: Future Birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk
- Kansas: World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things
- Kentucky: World’s Tallest Three Story Building
- Louisiana: Abita Mystery House
- Maine: Wild Blueberry Land
- Maryland: Vanadu Art House
- Massachusetts: The Paper House
- Michigan: Giant Uniroyal Tire
- Minnesota: Jolly Green Giant Statue
- Mississippi: The Frog Farm
- Missouri: BoatHenge
- Montana: Garden of One Thousand Buddhas
- Nebraska: Klown Doll Museum
- Nevada: International Car Forest
- New Hampshire: The USS Albacore
- New Mexico: International UFO Museum
- New Jersey: Lucy the Elephant
- New York: World’s Largest Pancake Griddle
- North Carolina: The World’s Largest Chest of Drawers
- North Dakota: The Enchanted Highway
- Ohio: World’s Largest Bobblehead
- Oklahoma: Winganon Space Capsule
- Oregon: Mill Ends Park
- Pennsylvania: The Haines Shoe House
- Rhode Island: The Big Blue Bug
- South Carolina: South of the Border
- South Dakota: The World’s Only Corn Palace
- Tennessee: Backyard Terrors Dinosaur Park
- Texas: Barney Smith’s Toilet Seat Art Museum
- Utah: Hole N” The Rock
- Vermont: Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard
- Virginia: Hugh Mongous
- Washington: Big Red Wagon
- West Virginia: World’s Largest Teapot
- Wisconsin: Al Johnson’s Goats on the Roof
- Wyoming: World’s Largest Elkhorn Arch
Presley Bo Tyler is the Louisiana Deep South Connect Team reporter for USA Today Network. Find her on X @PresleyTyler02 and email at PTyler@Gannett.com
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns erupted for 15 hits and never trailed after the first inning Tuesday night, defeating the Marshall Thundering Herd 11-1 in seven innings at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Dabos Park.
Louisiana (35-21) answered an unearned Marshall run in the top of the first with three runs in the bottom half and continued to pile on offense throughout the night.
Center fielder Noah Lewis led the Cajuns offensively, finishing 4-for-5 with three runs scored, a double, a three-run home run and three RBIs. His fifth-inning blast to deep center field stretched Louisiana’s lead to 9-1 and effectively put the game out of reach.
Mark Collins added three hits and two RBIs, including a two-run double in the third inning, while Lee Amedee finished with two hits and two RBIs. Blaze Rodriguez scored three times and reached base four times with three walks.
The Cajuns wasted little time responding after Marshall took a 1-0 lead on an error-assisted run in the first inning. Louisiana answered with RBI hits from Amedee and Drew Markle before another run scored on a Marshall fielding error for a 3-1 advantage.
Louisiana extended the lead in the third inning after RBI singles from Owen Galt and Collins made it 6-1.
On the mound, Cody Brasch earned the win after allowing just three hits and no earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. He struck out one and walked two before Parker Smith closed out the final 1 2/3 innings.
Marshall managed only three hits in the game and went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
With the victory, Louisiana advances to face Coastal Carolina on Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. in a rematch after the Cajuns took two of three from the Chanticleers in the final regular season series last week.
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