…and things could finally start to get interesting on that front. This was a major concern of the anti-St. George crowd, because they were desperately hoping the case would go away before the Supreme Court, which many believe will be predisposed to uphold the incorporation of the new city in the southern part of East Baton Rouge Parish, had a chance to review it.

No such luck, fellas.

As expected, the legal battle centered around the incorporation of the city of St. George is heading to the Louisiana Supreme Court.

The court confirmed Wednesday that the matter is set be argued in its next available docket.

Supporters of the movement to carve out St. George and form its own standalone city said over the summer they planned to take the matter to the state’s highest court after the First Circuit Court of Appeal sided with East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, who sued to keep the process from moving forward.

Some outspoken members of the St. George community have campaigned for years to create a new incorporated city in the southeastern portion of East Baton Rouge Parish, but attempts to get it on the ballot for a vote repeatedly fell short until 2019. Since then, the legal back-and-forth has kept the effort in limbo.

In a statement Wednesday, a mayor’s office spokesperson said, “This move was expected in a case of this political nature. We expect the district court ruling and unanimous court of appeals ruling to be upheld.”

Read the full announcement from the state Supreme Court here.

We won’t get into the legal issues the Supreme Court will have to make sense of in this case. Instead, what we’ll note is that Louisiana’s governor-elect has a much different attitude toward the incorporation of St. George than the outgoing governor does, and in Jeff Landry you’re going to have somebody who will be quite helpful toward the St. George people.

And why wouldn’t he? By and large, the St. George folks were Landry supporters. The Baton Rouge blue-blood crowd, most of whom have railed against St. George, lined up with Stephen Waguespack or even Shawn Wilson. Landry is more of an old-time politician for whom the rewarding of friends and punishing of enemies is something of a sacrament of governance – in that respect he isn’t different than John Bel Edwards, though Landry’s friends are very different people than Edwards’ have been – and he’ll be in a position to reward the St. George folks.

We’ll see if that translates into pressure on the plaintiffs to drop their suit and allow the incorporation. Landry can do a lot to create that.

Or the Supreme Court can rule for St. George, which would be as much a recognition of the direction of the political winds as it is a proper legal analysis.

Either way, we’ve never been more sure that St. George is going to happen than we are right now. In a year that new city will be up and running.