Governor Blanco abuses and exceeds legal authority by indefinitely suspending elections in Orleans Parish; ACLU Foundation of Louisiana joins federal lawsuit to overturn executive order
For immediate release December 19, 2005
NEW ORLEANS—The ACLU of Louisiana, today, signed onto a federal lawsuit to overturn Governor Blanco’s executive order of December 12 to indefinitely suspend elections in Orleans Parish. The ACLU contends that the order violates the plaintiffs’ civil rights under the First[1] and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and the Voting Rights Act of 1965[2], as amended,
“A free and democratic people can only govern themselves when they have the right to vote and elect their public officials in accordance with the law,” according to Joe Cook, Executive Director, ACLU Foundation of Louisiana. “If Mardi Gras can go on as scheduled, surely the State of Louisiana and Orleans Parish officials can get it together enough for an election over two months away.”
Based on applicable local, state and federal laws, there is no rational basis for either extending incumbent terms of Orleans Parish officials beyond four years, or for postponing the inauguration of newly elected officials in the City of New Orleans beyond May 1, 2006. Furthermore, there exists no special or compelling governmental need justifying this arbitrary gubernatorial intrusion into, and abridgement of the City Charter of the City of New Orleans, with respect to the most fundamental of all civil rights shared by the plaintiffs.
“The ACLU of Louisiana stands ready to help with voter education for displaced residents qualified to vote absentee and for people who have returned to help rebuild our great city,” Cook goes on to say. “The state of emergency does not exist in New Orleans sufficient to justify postponement of the elections beyond the dates proposed in the lawsuit.”
By motion with the federal court today in Tisserand v. Blanco, ACLU Cooperating Attorneys Vincent Booth and Emma Elizabeth Daschbach will serve as co-counsel in representing the interests of the four named plaintiffs.
[1] Plaintiffs invoke their right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as well as the Constitution of the State of Louisiana, together with the Bill of Rights ensconced in the New Orleans City Charter, to petition their government for a redress of grievances.
[2] The extra costs of logistics are mandated to be paid by funds appropriated by the Congress of the United States, … where a disparate racial effect is involved (as Plaintiff Rev. Byrd will aver, and of which this Honorable Court may take clear judicial notice) in the abridgment of voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.