Gov. Jeff Landry on Monday criticized an eleventh-hour audible that state lawmakers called to eliminate the post of Orleans Parish Criminal District Judge Rhonda Goode-Douglas as part of a package of judicial cuts in the city.
“I have not been part of any of those decisions today,” Landry said in an interview after the Legislature passed SB 217. The bill’s author, Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, credited the governor’s office and the New Orleans delegation for a decision to swap one judge for another on the chopping block.
“Nobody called and asked me. If they would have, I would’ve told them that’s ridiculous,” Landry said of the move. “They’re taking the best judge off the bench.”…