It seems like a crazy thing to talk about, but the case of New Orleans’ now-obsolete two-clerk system at their parish Clerk Of Court offices might just result in most of the city’s elected officials being forcibly put to pasture.

Let’s reset the scene here. As our regular readers know, for well over a century Orleans Parish had the rather bizarre honor of not one, but two elected clerks of court – one for civil cases and the other for criminal cases. This was something put in place at a time when Louisiana was a one-party Democrat state and New Orleans dominated Louisiana in the same way that, say, New York City dominates New York politics. It was the product of raw political power – Orleans Parish had the power to make taxpayers in the rest of the state foot the bill for its clerk of criminal court, so it did.

Now, Orleans doesn’t have that kind of power. Orleans Parish ranks just third among the state’s parishes in population – East Baton Rouge and Jefferson each have more people. As such, a now-Republican state decided, through its state legislature, with the signature of the governor, to eliminate the elected position of clerk of the criminal court in Orleans Parish.

Race enters into this because Calvin Duncan, the guy elected to that position in November who was unlucky enough to have his office disbanded by the legislature before he could be legally sworn in, is black and seems to want everybody to know it. It doesn’t help that Duncan was involved, in some way, in a murder a few decades ago and spent 28 years in prison for it. Duncan’s camp says he was “exonerated” of the charge; that’s not really what happened – but that’s a whole other post.

The point being that the Left has now crafted a narrative that racist white people at the Capitol, and most notably state senator Jay Morris, who’s from Monroe, set upon Calvin Duncan to ruin his life because he’s an unjustly-oppressed black man seeking to overcome the indignities forced on him.

When what’s really happening is that New Orleans has never needed two clerks of court, New Orleans’ court system is an absolute mess and desperately needs cleaning up, this is an obvious thing that should have been fixed long ago and the state finally has leadership with enough sand to actually do something about it. It doesn’t matter who the elected criminal clerk of court is, or whether he’s an actual-criminal clerk of court. The position is superfluous and there is no time like the present to make necessary reforms.

Duncan’s crowd went to federal court trying to get an injunction against the new law wiping out his office from taking effect. They were successful, but in no time flat the Fifth Circuit stayed the injunction, slapping down the left-wing district judge who gave the injunction.

So that takes us up to this week, because for some strange reason the political class in New Orleans has decided to escalate the fight over the clerk of court.

Per the new law, which is Act 15, Chelsey Richard Napoleon – the clerk of civil court in Orleans, who’s been in that job since 2018 – assumed control of the criminal workload at the clerk’s office. Napoleon has said it’s a fairly orderly transition even though she says she disagrees with how it was done. That obviously wasn’t enough for Mayor Helena Moreno and the New Orleans City Council, because on Monday they passed a resolution by a 5-2 vote of the Council to declare that the “unified” clerk of court office is therefore a new elected position, and Napoleon is therefore not rightly in that job. The Council decided to appoint retired judge Calvin Johnson as the interim clerk of court and hold an election on November 3 to fill it permanently.

Forget that state law, which is what governs this and not the whims of the New Orleans City Council, explicitly says the civil clerk of court in Orleans Parish is the clerk of court going forward and it’s thus Chelsey Napoleon’s job. They blew right past that.

And in doing so, they attracted the attention of Liz Murrill, the state’s attorney general, who gave them the “Excuse me…what the hell are you doing?” treatment…

🚨I am demanding the immediate rescission of the New Orleans Clerk’s resolutions, or these officials could face potential forfeiture of their offices.

I specifically asked the New Orleans City Council to wait for the Louisiana Supreme Court to weigh in. Instead, they knowingly… pic.twitter.com/G6mDrecBfh

— Attorney General Liz Murrill (@AGLizMurrill) May 13, 2026

And this is a thing because on Tuesday, Chelsey Napoleon filed suit at the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge against the mayor and city council, taking the position that she’d like to keep the job she was elected to and duly and legally holds, and that Moreno and her gang should buzz off.

The suit isn’t overly complicated and it makes some pretty basic points…

– The Clerk of Court is a state constitutional office, not a municipal/city position. The City Council has zero constitutional or statutory authority to appoint, remove, or call an election for it.
– No vacancy exists under Act 15; Napoleon is the lawful holder, with all records/funds transferred to her.
– The council’s actions are an “unlawful attempt” to install a competing clerk, creating “competing claims,” institutional chaos, harm to court records/criminal filings/election records, and erosion of public confidence.
– Napoleon seeks an emergency injunction to block the special election, remove Johnson, declare no vacancy, and affirm her as the clerk (via quo warranto or similar relief). A hearing was set quickly.

Murrill is essentially defending Napoleon here. But that isn’t the narrative Moreno and the Council like, so they have a new one.

Here was Helena Moreno, who might consider something other than pulling her hair back to expose maximum forehead if she wants to be taken seriously…

🚨MAYOR HELENA CLAPS BACK🚨

Nice try Liz but according to my Mayor – you’ve broken the law https://t.co/5o1yGKKKrg pic.twitter.com/m65SCjszHr

— Not That JD (@jdfromthe504) May 13, 2026

This is not going to end well.

First of all, she’s using the word “intimidation” as a bit of political messaging and then getting cute with a state law which was written to stop things like the Klan showing up and burning crosses on somebody’s lawn to influence their vote on the police jury. This is not really a thing when it comes to the Attorney General telling you that what you’re doing as a public official is illegal and that if you don’t stop there are legal remedies available to make you stop.

Especially since what Murrill has said was that Napoleon should have her day in court and that the Louisiana Supreme Court was ultimately going to have to weigh in on the question of Duncan/Napoleon/Act 15. How is that not reasonable?

And yes, the state has usurper laws which are still in effect even though J.P. Morrell, Jason Hughes and the New Orleans City Council doesn’t like them because they’re old (most very basic laws are old; that’s the nature of basic law). Those statutes do seem to apply to this situation, and yes, they do allow for blowing these people out of office and replacing them via appointment by the governor.

Not to be outdone, New Orleans’ Soros DA Jason Williams jumped into the fray to poo-pooh Murrill’s warning. “The suggestion that the chief legal officer of this state would threaten removal from office against the mayor, members of the City Council, or other public officials for adhering to their understanding of the law raises serious questions about the appropriate use of prosecutorial and constitutional authority,” Williams wrote in a statement.

If you want to hide something from Jason Williams, you put it in a law book. He’d never look for it there. In his statement he complains that the law Murrill is talking about comes from the Reconstruction era.

So? Does he know how old the murder statutes are? Does that make them stale or obsolete?

Wait – maybe we don’t want to ask him that given his unconventionally lenient attitude toward violent criminals in New Orleans.

The thing is, New Orleans is more or less fiscally insolvent as it is and had to go to the State Bond Commission for a bailout. Now Moreno and the Idiot Squad on that city council think they can demagogue their way into statewide relevance using the Calvin Duncan thing as leverage, and they’ve got groups like the Soros-funded Power Coalition for Equity and Justice (Paul Grantham had a big piece on that outfit and the threat it poses yesterday), and on top of that there are persistent rumors Moreno is going to be the Democrats’ candidate for governor next year, which if true would wrap all of this up in a nice bow.

What it means is this is going to get worse before it gets better. New Orleans is now a renegade city run by insane clown politicians whose pandering to the lunatic-fringe Left is basically limitless. They can’t balance a budget, provide basic services or leave their citizens alone long enough to generate any economic growth, which is actually pulling down Louisiana’s overall economic prospects.

And Landry and Murrill have shown that they’re not interested in tolerating renegade clowns.

So how this will end is anybody’s guess. But if Moreno and Morrell don’t recognize the waterfall they’re floating toward and take the loss here, you might just see a state takeover.

Especially if Moreno thinks starting a war with the governor in advance of running for his job is a smart idea.