A former state Supreme Court justice resigned in dramatic fashion last week from the Judiciary Commission, accusing the body of failing to hold judges accountable for wrongdoing, days before Gov. Jeff Landry urged the h Legislature to pass .
“I have realized that I serve no purpose as a member,” former Justice Chet Traylor wrote in a letter to Landry explaining why he resigned from the commission, which investigates complaints against judges and can recommend their discipline to the Supreme Court. He called for more transparency around judicial discipline and alleged that complaints against judges often go unaddressed.
“Judges need to be above board and accountable as their actions determine the way our citizens view our government,” he wrote. “I only wish that my serving could have turned the tide.”
Traylor’s scathing remarks stand out in a state where judges often close ranks and rarely speak publicly – and are forbidden from doing so about active cases. His letter paints h as rife with judges who are “incompetent or so arrogant that they think they are above the law,” and it says there is a lack of “meaningful action” against them.
The former justice’s comments are one of the starkest signs of a push for stronger oversight of the judiciary by lawmakers, Landry and some judges. The movement has even spilled over to , with one candidate seizing on Traylor’s comments and promising to bring accountability to the bench.
“As a sitting judge, what I have to say is not going to be popular and may get me in trouble with some of my colleagues, but it has to be said,” 22nd JDC Judge Billy Burris, who is running to represent the Northshore on the Supreme Court, said in a on Tuesday night. “The Supreme Court is in charge of holding judges accountable, and as your next Supreme Court justice you can count on me to do exactly that. It is time to bring transparency to this process.”
Burris is running against First Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Blair Downing Edwards for the seat vacated by Justice Will Crain, who is now on the federal bench. Both candidates are Republicans.
In an interview, Edwards also committed to holding judges accountable.
“I do believe that the judiciary commission should be firm. We want to be very firm and we want consequences for people’s actions,” she said. “Certainly judges need to be held to a higher standard.”
Currently, judges can be sanctioned or removed from the bench by order of the state Supreme Court. The judiciary commission can recommend discipline to the high court, but the justices do not have to follow their suggestions. Judges in h are not subject to recall elections.
Removal from office is an extraordinarily rare step that the Supreme Court has only taken twice in the last 16 years.
The h Constitution allows the Legislature to impeach officials “for commission or conviction … of a felony or for malfeasance or gross misconduct” while in office. Yet lawyers familiar with judicial discipline disagree over whether judges are subject to that law, and they believe impeachment of a state or local judge has not been attempted since the constitution was written in 1973.
Views on the disciplinary process
While Traylor and lawmakers allege that the system is failing, some former judges have described an honorable commission that became more transparent in recent years.
“I didn’t find the commission did anything wrong the whole time I was there,” said Ed Walters, who served on the panel between 2017 and 2021. “I never met nicer or more well-meaning people who worked hard to do the right thing for the public and do the right thing for the judge.”
The state Supreme Court announced changes in 2020 to the judicial discipline process, making it more open by allowing cases to become public once the Judiciary Commission files a notice of hearing against a judge.
Before then, judicial discipline cases remained cloaked in secrecy unless the Supreme Court weighed in on them. An investigation from h | The Times-Picayune found that just 2% of cases the commission investigated between 2008 and 2018 reached the threshold to become public.
Still, complaints against judges remain confidential in their early stages, and the Supreme Court has maintained rules that complainants, judges and witnesses are not supposed to discuss them unless the investigation leads to a notice of hearing against a judge.
The Judiciary Commission also maintains ways to privately handle a complaint against a judge, including sending them confidential “reminders, cautions or admonishments” that are never publicly disclosed.
Judges and others who favor the current system have warned that pending legislation could put judges under pressure from the governor and throw off the balance of power between the judiciary and executive branches.
One of the most controversial proposals geared toward judicial accountability comes from state Sen. Jay Morris, R-West Monroe, who has long complained about the efficacy of the commission and raised concerns that the state relies too heavily on the judiciary to police itself.
Ѵǰ’ would ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment giving the governor the power to remove judges and district attorneys from office, pending a trial and 2/3 vote from the state Senate.
Landry has expressed support for the measure, though he has also said the new oversight power need not necessarily go to him.
“It doesn’t have to be me, they could give it to the Senate or attorney general or whomever, but something has to be done to bring everybody under control,” Landry told reporters on Monday, the opening day of the legislative session.
In 2024, Morris successfully sponsored a that enabled the governor, Senate president and House speaker to appoint five new Judiciary Commission members. Previously, panels of judges selected all commission members.
Questions over judges’ conduct
Over the past year and a half, Louisian has seen several high-profile cases of judges accused of misconduct or incompetence.
Most recently, Attorney General Liz Murrill asked the Judiciary Commission to investigate how Orleans Parish Juvenile Court judges were handling teens in electronic monitoring programs. In one case, Malik Cornelius failed to comply with his monitoring program for months leading up to the killing of Jacob Carter, a tourist in New Orleans. Cornelius was convicted in connection with the killing.
Carter's family also filed a complaint with the Judiciary Commission, asking it to investigate the judge who assigned Cornelius' ankle monitor. That complaint was dismissed.
In his resignation letter, Traylor said another judge, who was implicated in multiple instances of misconduct, got off too lightly with “what amounted to an eight month paid vacation.”
His statement refers to 19th JDC Judge Eboni Johnson Rose, who was subject to a months-long investigation by the Judiciary Commission. It found that two convictions were thrown out due to mistakes made in her courtroom. She also convicted a man of malfeasance in office, and then acquitted him three weeks later; the First Circuit Court of Appeal later reinstated his conviction.
In a split decision, the Supreme Court approved a deal in which Johnson Rose accepted an unpaid, two-month suspension, agreeing that she deserved a second chance because she showed contrition. That happened eight months after she was placed on paid leave.
Johnson Rose also drew heat for using a racial slur during a sidebar, when she accused District Attorney Hillar Moore’s office of unfairly targeting Black men. State investigators found she “applied impermissible pressure on the state to alter its plea offer.”
In December, the Supreme Court did take the unusual step of removing 19th JDC Judge Tiffany Foxworth-Roberts from the bench because she lied about her military service while campaigning for office. Officials also accused her of a fraudulent burglary insurance claim worth about $40,000.
Correction: This story has been updated to note that the h Constitution allows for impeachment of elected officials, though it is unclear whether the law covers judges. An earlier version of this story said judges could only be removed by the state Supreme Court.