NEED TO KNOW

• AG Murrill threatens removal of seven elected officials plus an interim appointee.
• Mayor Moreno fires back, citing state law barring threats against public officials.
• Fight centers on blocking Calvin Duncan, elected with 68% of the vote.

NEW ORLEANS, LA (TDR) — Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Wednesday warned eight New Orleans leaders they could forfeit their offices under the state's "usurper statutes" if they refuse to retract support for a new clerk of court election.

🚨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

The big picture: The standoff escalated a months-long fight over Calvin Duncan, a wrongfully imprisoned Black man who won the Orleans Parish criminal court clerk race with 68% of the vote before the GOP-controlled legislature eliminated the office days before he was sworn in.

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• Gov. Jeff Landry signed Act 15 on April 30, consolidating the criminal and civil clerk roles under civil clerk Chelsey Richard Napoleon.
• The City Council responded May 11 by appointing retired Judge Calvin Johnson as interim clerk and calling a Nov. 3 special election.

Why it matters: A state attorney general is threatening to use a law born from white-supremacist violence to remove duly elected officials, six of whom are Black or Latina, in the state's largest majority-Black city.

• Murrill warned the council its actions "trigger serious consequences under Louisiana's usurper statutes," including possible forfeiture of office.
• If officials are removed, Landry would appoint replacements under state law, a power his administration previously eyed during the city's financial crisis.

Driving the news: Letters went to Mayor Helena Moreno, DA Jason Williams, five council members who voted yes, and Johnson himself. The two who voted no were spared.

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• Murrill argues Act 15 did not create a vacancy but merely renamed Napoleon's existing office.
• Napoleon has already filed her own suit challenging the council's appointment.
• Duncan alleges in federal court that Landry and Murrill engaged in a "coordinated conspiracy" against him.

What they're saying:

• Liz Murrill, Louisiana Attorney General — "There is no vacancy, and no public official should recognize this fictional office or Judge Calvin Johnson's purported appointment to it."
• Helena Moreno, New Orleans Mayor — "I will not be intimidated or threatened by the state attorney general. I won't back down."
• Jason Williams, Orleans Parish DA — "The statute now being invoked is a relic of the Reconstruction era."

Yes, but: Two Black council members who voted against the special election, Lesli Harris and Eugene Green, argue New Orleans Democrats are handing the GOP its preferred outcome by treating Napoleon's office as vacant.

• Harris said the move risks "pitting two Black elected officials against each other" if Duncan and Napoleon both run.
• Napoleon herself called the council's special election an "illegal proposition" during public comment.

Between the lines: The usurper law Murrill is wielding dates to the 1870s, when it was passed in part to give Reconstruction-era authorities tools against white-supremacist insurgents trying to overthrow Louisiana's biracial government. A century and a half later, a Republican AG is pointing it at majority-Black New Orleans — a city that, the same month, watched the Supreme Court strike down the state's congressional map and the legislature begin redrawing it to potentially eliminate a Black-held district.

What's next:

• The Louisiana Supreme Court stayed a preliminary injunction Sunday and is expected to weigh in on the council's authority.
• A hearing on Napoleon's suit is scheduled for next week.
• Duncan's federal civil rights case remains pending after the Fifth Circuit stayed a district court ruling.

If a state's top lawyer can threaten elected officials with removal for disagreeing with her legal interpretation, what's left of the line between prosecution and political pressure?

Sources

This report was compiled using reporting from NOLA.com, The Gambit, WWL-TV, Fox 8, Verite News, and the Louisiana Illuminator.

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