Louisiana Civil Appeals

Researching backgrounds of appellate judges

If you ever need to research the background of a Louisiana Supreme Court justice or Louisiana Court of Appeal judge, here are a couple of places to start:

• The Louisiana Free Enterprise Institute has a page on Louisiana’s judiciary. The LFEI is an organization created by the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. The bios are organized by court, but there’s also a search feature that allows you to jump straight to a particular judge’a or justice’s bio.
• Ballotpedia is more ambitious than the LFEI; it attempts to cover all elected offices in America. With a scope that broad, the site can be a chore to navigate. But don’t worry; just follow these links to Ballotpedia’s pages on the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Courts of Appeal, and click on the name of the justice or justice you’re researching.

Need a copy of the La. Constitution of 1921?

In case you ever need to research the Louisiana Constitution of 1921, here’s a link to an on-line copy, courtesy of the Cornell University Library. If you follow the link and scroll down, you’ll see download options, including PDF.

p.s. For the Louisiana Constitution of 1879, follow this link.

Where to find the skinny on appellate judges (La. or fed.)

If you ever have the need to research the background of U.S. Fifth Circuit judges, check out Ballotpedia’s page on the U.S. Fifth Circuit. There, you will find links to pages on each judge, which in turn contain links to any online information about that judge. 

Ballotpedia also has a Louisiana page, with links to pages on the Louisiana Supreme Court and the Louisiana Courts of Appeal. Those pages, in turn, have links enabling you to drill down to pages on a particular court or a particular justice or judge.