NOLA.com6%
Gov. Jeff Landry says Legislature could meet for special session on New Orleans courts 24%
By Meghan Friedmann35%
7/23/2026, 9:11:00 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Burden of Proof, Confirmation Bias, and Framing Effect, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 30.9% saturation with 138 hits. Analysis detected 912 faulty-reasoning hits from 446 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 36.8% and a BS Rank of 24% (16,155 of 21,198 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 76.20% of the article peer group.
Gov.
Jeff Landry said the Louisiana Legislature could hold a special session to take more control of Orleans Parish courts after a grand jury there indicted Attorney General Liz Murrill earlier this month, infuriating Republican state leaders who say the now-dropped charges against her were bogus and politically-motivated.
Lawmakers “want to look at ways that they can take more control of the court system in the city of New Orleans,” Landry said Wednesday during a press conference at the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge.
It is unclear whether key leaders in the Legislature would be on board with returning to the Capitol ahead of the regularly-scheduled session next spring.
Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, did not immediately return an inquiry, and state Rep.
Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, who serves as house speaker, declined to comment.
Landry’s remarks were a sign that the political war waged over Orleans courts in the spring won’t end anytime soon.
During the recent legislative session, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed laws cutting down on the number of Orleans judgeships, combining the civil and criminal clerk positions and taking funds away from the prosecutor’s office.
Republicans said the bills were part of a long-needed right-sizing of the city’s court system, but the changes were bitterly fought by the New Orleans delegation and drew the ire of city officials, who are Democrats.
They accused Republicans of unfairly targeting the city.
Murrill’s indictment stemmed from letters she sent Mayor Helena Moreno, District Attorney Jason Williams and five city council members in May after the city appointed an interim clerk to head up the combined civil and criminal clerk’s office.
That decision usurped the authority of Chelsea Richard Napoleon, the civil clerk whom the Legislature chose to head the unified office, Murrill said, warning that the officials were breaking the law and could lose their jobs.
On July 2, a grand jury charged Murrill with eight counts of intimidation and eight counts of malfeasance.
Just three weeks later, Laurie White, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, said she would not pursue the charges after Moreno, Williams and other city officials called for the case to be dropped, citing repercussions for New Orleans.
At Wednesday’s press conference, which was originally called to discuss Tropical Storm Bertha, Murrill accused New Orleans leadership of pushing for her indictment, though she did not provide details on how that came to pass.
She said she believed Williams’ office had been involved — a claim Williams, who recused himself from the case, denied.
Landry called for a federal investigation into the matter.
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