Opinion ID: 1953344
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Application to the Act

Text: Act 512 enacted the Chisom seat through La.R.S. 13:312.4. Section 312.4(C) provides: Pursuant to Article V, Section 5(A) of the Constitution of Louisiana, the judge provided for in Subsection A shall be immediately assigned to the Louisiana Supreme Court. While assigned to the supreme court, the judge shall participate and share equally in the cases and duties of the justices of the supreme court during the period of the assignment. Further, the judge shall receive the same compensation, benefits, expenses, and emoluments of office as are now or as may hereafter be provided by law for justices of the Louisiana Supreme Court. La.R.S. 13:312.4 (C). Section 312.4 (A) created an additional judgeship for the Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, id. § 312.4 (A), and instructed that an election to fill the judgeship take place in the first district of the fourth circuit in 1992. [34] Id. § 312.4 (B). By ordering the judge duly elected under the act assigned immediately to the supreme court pursuant to article V, section 5 (A), the Act envisioned an assignment for as many as seven years, until a justice was elected in the newly created district composed solely of Orleans Parish. Id. § 312.4 (D); see id. § 101.1 (A) (creating Orleans Parish district). The section does not limit the assigned judge to a typical temporary appointment, for instance, to sit on any and all cases as the court may direct as the progenitor of the article V, section 5(A) power provided. See LA. CONST. art. VII, § 4 (1921), as amended. Rather, section 312.4 charges the assigned judge shall participate and share equally in all of the cases, duties, and benefits of office as are afforded the justices of the supreme court during the period of the assignment. La.R.S. 13:312.4 (C). It is apparent from a plain reading of section 312.4 that the legislature was attempting to effectuate an immediate remedy of alleged voting rights violations by providing a majority-minority appellate court district, with concomitant assignment of the duly elected judge to the supreme court, to serve in the full capacity of a justice during the period assigned. We recognize this course of action was undertaken in good faith to effectuate a remedy least injurious to the institution, at a point in time when the voting rights jurisprudence was in transition. However, section 312.4's implementation effectively created an eighth position on this court, implicating state constitutional concerns. While meant to be temporary, section 312.4 has administered a process that we must find is constrained by article V, section 3's numerative limit. Section 312.4 contemplated a construction of this court's assignment power that we are unable to supply. Considering the intent behind the 1974 revisions, the historical boundaries of the power, and the conflict it presents with a specific limiting provision concerning this court's composition, we find it impossible to harmonize article V, section 3 with article V, section 5(A), so as to give full effect to the more specific numerative requirement in light of the Act's clear purpose. The Act's very language instructs the assigned judge shall serve in the full capacity of a justiceequal in responsibilities and benefits, and unhindered by the court's supervisory jurisdiction. However, the power of temporary assignment to this court, both today and historically, has constrained the appointee's power in the sense that the judge assigned serves at the direction or pleasure of this court. Clearly, section 312.4 intended no such limitation on the Chisom seat. However, that limitation of the assigned judge's power has been a corollary to this court's assignment power over the course of several constitutional revisions, and remains so today. A genuine construction of section 5(A), which gives full effect to the power and implements its purposes, reveals the type of assignment confected by section 312.4 was beyond that which was contemplated by the redactors. Therefore, we must hold the Act unconstitutional under article V, section 3, insofar as it effectively imposes an eighth justice on the supreme court by the provisions of La.R.S. 13:312.4.