By Greg LaRose | Editor-in-Chief
“It's suspended for now. It doesn't mean it's suspended for tomorrow,” — U.S. Rep Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, urging early voters to cast ballots in the U.S. House elections Gov. Jeff Landry paused last week.
State Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, said a legislative committee plans to hear public testimony Friday on new congressional districts in Louisiana after the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated the current version of the map last week. (Wes Muller/LAI)
By Piper Hutchinson
A Louisiana legislative committee will meet Friday to hear public comments on a new congressional district map after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to overturn the existing version. A lawmaker who will lead the process says one of the state’s majority-Black U.S. House districts will be eliminated, favoring one sitting congressman over another.
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Calvin Duncan is sworn in as Clerk of Criminal Court at Orleans Parish Criminal District Court on April 21, 2026. (Christiana Botic/Verite News)
By Greg LaRose
Just hours after a federal judge halted a new state law to eliminate the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court’s office, an appellate court allowed the measure to take effect. Caught in the court chaos is Calvin Duncan, who officially began work Monday before a U.S. 5th Circuit ruling allowed the law to go into effect. Duncan, a former “jailhouse lawyer” who was wrongfully imprisoned for 28 years, was elected court clerk in November with 68% support against a sitting incumbent.
Mifepristone is one of two drugs that can be used before 10 weeks to terminate a pregnancy and to treat miscarriages.(Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
By Kelcie Moseley-Morris
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary stay on an appeals court ruling that was blocking remote access to an abortion drug, restoring access until at least May 11. The case could follow a similar pattern to one that played out in 2023, when a federal judge in Texas issued a ruling that would have revoked access to mifepristone altogether.
By Amanda Watford
Researchers found that public concern tends to track major shifts in homicide rates more closely than broader crime trends. But overall, people’s views about crime and their fear of it have not matched shifts in crime rates for most years, according to the report.
COMMENTARY
By Andrea Hagan
Black Louisianans are roughly one-third of this state’s population, yet the Supreme Court has made clear that even a district designed to reflect that reality is suspect if Black political representation is too visible.
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