The Louisiana Supreme Court on a New Orleans grand jury’s 16-count felony indictment of Attorney General Liz Murrill, with five justices voting in favor of the stay and two dissenting.
While the with eight counts of malfeasance in office and eight counts of intimidation, Murrill’s attorneys filed an emergency request for the state’s high court to review the case. The Supreme Court stepped in Friday morning with a stay, remanding the case back to district court for Murrill to file defenses.
The five who voted to issue the stay were Justices Cade Cole, Piper Griffin, Jefferson Hughes, Jay McCallum and the court’s newest member, Billy Burris, about two weeks ago. The two justices who dissented were John Michael Guidry and Chief Justice John Weimer.
In an individual dissent, Weimer wrote that he “disagree(d) with this court’s decision to take up this matter in its current posture.” Read it here:
Guidry also penned in a dissent saying the court’s decision threatened its legitimacy in the public eye.
“Can our court truly say with a straight face after today’s ruling, on the eve of the 250th anniversary of our nation’s independence, that we truly believe that no one is above the law?” Guidry wrote.
Meanwhile, three justices who voted in favor of the stay wrote concurrences that outlined some of their reasons.
McCallum described the as troubling, and suggested discipline could be on the table for attorneys and judges.
“If they prove to be even partially accurate, then additional proceedings before the newly reconstituted Judiciary Commission and Office of Disciplinary Counsel will no doubt become necessary,” he wrote.
Hughes noted that issuing a stay does not decide the merits of the case.
“This extraordinary situation obviously calls for a stay,” Hughes wrote.
Griffin, meanwhile, wrote that she shared Guidry’s concerns about whether the situation called for such urgency.
“However, out of an abundance of caution, I agree with the issuance of a stay that does not reach the merits but allows this Court to ultimately resolve this rapidly escalating quagmire,” Griffin wrote.
The full decision of the high court was issued in an unsigned per curiam on behalf of the justices. Read it here: