An upcoming election in a new majority-Black state Supreme Court district in Louisiana may already be decided after two of three candidates were disqualified from the race under an opinion issued by the Supreme Court.
Disqualified, after not providing adequate proof that they filed their tax returns in a timely manner, were Marcus Hunter, a judge on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal, and Leslie Chambers, chief of staff for the Louisiana Housing Corporation.
State law requires Supreme Court candidates to file their state and federal taxes for each of the five years leading up to elections in order to qualify. During testimony in the lower court, both Hunter and Chambers indicated that they believed their taxes had been filed.
Chambers said she believed she successfully filed her 2022 taxes through TurboTax and was actually owed a nearly $5,000 refund. But the Louisiana Department of Revenue indicated it never received Chambers’ tax filings for that year. Hunter’s accountant testified that he believed Hunter’s taxes for all three years in question were successfully filed before the candidate qualified in July.
Guidry, who has served as an appellate court judge in Louisiana for 26 years, ran for the state Supreme Court in 2012 but fell short. He became the first Black chief judge sworn in to lead the Capital City-based 1st Circuit
Two Justice dissented. Justice Jefferson D. Hughes III. He wrote: “The issue is not, in hindsight, whether taxes have been filed, mailed, transmitted, received, and/or rejected, There is an obvious difference between a candidate who has done nothing, and knows it, and one who in good faith believes his taxes have been filed when he or she so certifies.”
The seat Guidry would hold is a newly created majority-Black district on the high court, giving minorities a chance to hold two of its seven positions.
Read more: https://lailluminator.com/2024/08/20/guidry-supreme-court/