A district court judge has denied the secretary of state’s request for a suspensive appeal – meaning he refused to halt the effects of his ruling while it is appealed.
The ruling, reported first by The Current, shows that Judge John Trahan granted Kyle Ardoin’s request for an expedited, or fast-tracked, appeal, but denied the request that it be made suspensive. That means the effects of his ruling will not be frozen while the appeal proceeds.
The ruling came last month, when Trahan dismissed a lawsuit that demanded a new election be called to correct clerical errors in precinct numbers in the original “Fix the Charter” amendment. Voters passed that amendment last year; it dissolves the city-parish council and creates separate bodies for the city and parish.
Trahan ruled that those clerical errors can be corrected via City-Parish Council ordinance.
The amendment approved by voters last year calls for elections to be held this fall for the new councils; qualifying begins in August. If the request for a “suspensive” appeal had been granted, those elections might have been placed on hold if the appeals weren’t complete by August.
Here’s Ardoin’s motion, with the judge’s denial at the bottom:
