Speaker of the House Clay Schexnayder
The Louisiana Supreme Court orders a Baton Rouge judge to rehear a case involving a State House petition that seeks to override the Governor’s public health emergency declaration.
House Speaker Clay Schexnayder says he’s glad Judge William Morvant will hear the case again because the state needs clarity on whether the ongoing COVID restrictions are legal.
“It is a battle that I think needs to be fought and cleared up either in court or in legislation,” said Schexnayder.
On November 12th Morvant ruled a petition signed by a majority of House members was unconstitutional because a single chamber of the Legislature doesn’t have the authority to override legal orders. The Supreme Court says the ruling was premature.
The petition process was established by the Legislature and signed by the Governor early in the 2000s. Schexnayder believes it is a legal process.
“The Legislature years ago put this petition in place for us to use and although it was not meant to be used for a pandemic it does in a small way fit into where we are right now,” said Schexnayder.
A similar petition was never circulated in the Senate. Last month Senate President Page Cortez said that was because Senators did not believe there was enough evidence to warrant ending the order.
A new trial date has not been set but Shexnayder expects we won’t have to wait long.
“Judge Morvant is not one of them to push things back. I think that he will pull it up as quickly as he can and get it in there so we can move forward with this,” said Schexnayder.
Governor Edwards says he’s not concerned a new hearing will yield a different result.
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