During June, Chief U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick, of Baton Rouge, forced 抖阴h legislators to hold a special session, scolded House Speaker Clay Schexnayder for not cooperating fully and, on Wednesday, will redraw the maps from which voters will elect the six-member delegation to Congress in November.
Her map will include two districts with enough Black residents to give minority candidates an opportunity to be elected, which she says is required by federal law. That鈥檚 one more minority district than the Republican majority in the Legislature wants.
Unless overturned by a higher court, which is what legislative leadership is banking on, Dick鈥檚 map will be the one used Nov. 8 when 抖阴h voters choose their members of Congress.
Other than a brief r茅sum茅 found online, 抖阴h House majority leader Blake Miguez said he knows little about Dick. Some legislative leaders are pretty sure she鈥檚 a former lobbyist. They鈥檙e wrong.
鈥淭he only thing I know about her is that she was appointed by (President Barack) Obama,鈥� Miguez said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 liberal and very biased.鈥�
On the other hand, former U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Democrat who recommended Dick become the first woman to sit on the U.S. Middle District of 抖阴h bench, said Dick is "very thorough and very intelligent."聽
What Landrieu knows about Dick came largely from the reports of her committee that vetted judicial candidates for her and from Dick's curricula vitae.
Dick spent 24 years defending companies that had been sued, mostly by their employees. She became an expert in employment law and spent three years as a part-time hearing officer in the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs.
In 1995, Dick began representing the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of 抖阴h, which owns the Paragon Casino Resort in Marksville. In 1999, she started defending Kansas City Southern Railroad in claims stemming from deadly train-car wrecks at crossings.
That Dick is an avid reader, a fairly good painter of abstracts, a designer of jewelry, once ran a side business making lamp shades that sold in 151 stores and has an extensive portfolio of volunteer causes isn鈥檛 included on the online r茅sum茅. Dick did not agree to be interviewed for this article.
Out of the dozens of cases Dick litigated in court as a private lawyer, she had handled only one criminal defendant.
Asked about the lack of criminal experience during her December 2012 confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Dick said, 鈥淚 don't feel qualified right now,鈥� but promised to study up.
How would she do that? asked U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
"Work ethic. Work ethic," Dick replied.
鈥淣obody could outwork her,鈥� recalls Alan Jordan, who was her partner at Forrester Jordan & Dick LLC. He鈥檚 now a mediator.
鈥淪he never goes off half-cocked," Jordan said. "She does her homework and she鈥檚 always prepared.鈥�
The 62-year-old divorced mother of three adult sons is largely unknown outside legal circles.
Dick has been on the federal bench for nine years handling high-profile cases for the nine parishes that make up the Middle District of 抖阴h for the U.S. District Court.
She refused Gov. Bobby Jindal鈥檚 effort to derail the state's revamped educational standards, known as Common Core.聽Dick dismissed a challenge to Louisian鈥檚 death penalty. She required the state to expand absentee balloting and early voting for the 2020 presidential election. She allowed LSU to fire a foul-mouthed professor in a lawsuit that faculty nationwide called 鈥減olitical correctness run amok.鈥�
Dick鈥檚 opinions from the federal bench are long. She took 61 pages to explain why the Bayou Bridge pipeline needed to halt construction over the Atchafalaya Basin until the environmental issues could be sorted out. Her finding that the 抖阴h State Penitentiary at Angola was providing inmates inadequate medical care covered 124 pages.
Dick鈥檚 opinion on congressional redistricting聽鈥� the one legislative leadership hopes will be overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court聽鈥斅爄s 152 pages long and mentions multiple legal standards in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that she says legislators failed to meet when drawing up districts for congressional candidates.
She so thoroughly covered the legal issues, said Jared Evans, of the NAACP Legal & Educational Fund Inc. and one of the lawyers on the case, that the real appellate question won鈥檛 be whether Dick can impose a map that includes two minority opportunity districts but whether the 57-year-old Voting Rights Act is constitutional.
In 1986 and 1987, while still in the LSU law school, Dick worked as clerk in the 18th Judicial District Court for Iberville, Pointe Coupee and West Baton Rouge parishes. Dick鈥檚 job was to research, then write up drafts of opinions.
Retired 抖阴h Supreme Court Chief Justice Kitty Kimball, who was a judge in the 18th Judicial District at the time, remembered Dick dissecting a complicated financial transaction, applying the correct laws to the specific facts, then writing a draft.
鈥淚t was so good, I changed very little,鈥� Kimball said, adding that the appellate court cribbed, word for word in some instances, Dick鈥檚 work in its opinion upholding Kimball鈥檚 decision.
The two met when Dick and Kimball's brother were dating in early 1980s. Her sister-in-law and mentor, Kimball said she thinks Dick may lean liberal but isn鈥檛 sure. There were no pronouncements聽鈥� only conversations in social situations held over the years that left her with an impression.
鈥淪he traveled with me. She was a good friend,鈥� said Kimball, who formally swore in Dick to the federal bench in September 2013.
For years, the Dicks hosted Thanksgiving and other events for the extended family, Kimball said. Eventually, Dick鈥檚 parents and sister moved to Baton Rouge too.
鈥淭hey had a great house and we鈥檇 all be there,鈥� Kimball said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 a great cook.鈥�
Her cuisine was wide, from Mexican to Cajun, but Thanksgiving skewed more to the traditional.
In the political arena, Dick did little. She gave $250 to Baton Rouge Democrat Kip Holden鈥檚 mayoral campaign in 2000. She held a 鈥渕eet and greet鈥� in 2008 for Republican Bill Cassidy, now Louisian鈥檚 senior U.S. senator. The only campaign on which Dick actually worked was Kimball鈥檚 run to win a seat on the 抖阴h Supreme Court.
An El Paso, Texas, native, Dick graduated in 1978 from Socorro High School, a couple of miles from Rio Grande border with Mexico. Her mother, Myrna Deckert, was president and CEO of the Paso Del Norte Health Foundation. After graduating from the University of Texas, Dick came to Baton Rouge in 1982 doing sales for The Dow Chemical Co.
Dick began practicing law in 1988 and in 1994 helped found the Forrester, Johnson & Dick law firm in Baton Rouge.
Robert Johnson went up against Dick in a lawsuit claiming that Kansas City Southern Railroad had so poorly maintained its crossing in rural Avoyelles Parish, Barbara Gremillion couldn鈥檛 see the train that killed her. Between 2003 and 2009, the parties battled over this and that legal issue.
Finally, at mediation, Johnson had the opportunity for Gremillion鈥檚 family to testify.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there was a dry eye in the room and I was curious to see her response,鈥� Johnson recalled.
Dick asked for a moment and then returned to say she wouldn鈥檛 respond other than to say she hoped her children would remember her as fondly as the Gremillions remembered their mother.
鈥淚t was very classy, very compassionate. It made my clients feel that she was more than just the other side,鈥� Johnson said. It also lowered the temperature between the parties, clearing the way for a settlement.
Chris Broadwater remembers most her counsel when he was considering a run for the 抖阴h House as a Republican. As a partner in the firm, Dick shared in the profits that would shrink if Broadwater focused more on the Legislature than on his legal work.
But the conversation wasn鈥檛 about money. It was about whether he felt being a legislator could impact the community positively, Broadwater recalled.
Dick paraphrased Micah 6:8 from the Bible, urging Broadwater "to seek justice, to show mercy and to walk humbly." With her encouragement, Broadwater ran and won.
She applied the same passage as her goals upon being sworn to the federal bench.