Overview
- Civil Clerk Chelsey Napoleon filed suit Tuesday in Baton Rouge seeking an emergency injunction to stop the City Council’s interim appointment and a Nov. 3 special election.
- The New Orleans City Council, which voted Monday, named retired Judge Calvin Johnson as interim clerk and set a parishwide election to fill the post.
- Napoleon’s complaint names Mayor Helena Moreno, Council President J.P. Morrell, and Johnson, and argues the council has no authority to displace a state officeholder or call this election.
- The Louisiana Supreme Court granted a stay Monday in a related case, pausing a lower-court order and keeping the state’s merger law in effect while it reviews the challenge.
- The fight stems from Act 15, signed April 30, which merged the civil and criminal clerk offices and blocked clerk-elect Calvin Duncan from taking office after a brief May 3 federal win that was quickly stayed by the Fifth Circuit.