This piece is part of our As the South Votes series. 2024 is an election year that marks the culmination of nearly four years of rapidly expanding repressive fascist state apparatus. This election season, our region continues to be the nation's testing ground for the censorship, policing, and access barriers that define post-2020 reality.

Louisiana is on a concerning spiral toward a repressive regime that intends to harm and violate its citizens. On a more alarming scale, with the rise of many of Louisiana's far-right politicians into positions of federal power, the rights and freedoms of every American are now at risk as well. 

On April 15, the United States Supreme Court decided to uphold the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to hold Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson liable for injuries sustained at a 2016 protest. A Louisiana police officer was injured while attempting to break up the action organized by Mckesson following the state murder of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge. SCOTUS's decision to not hear the case has set a new precedent in the state's ongoing quest to repress dissent, as it facilitated the banning of mass protest and peaceful assembly rights for American citizens in three southern states, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana.  

At issue in this Louisiana-based case is whether the First Amendment and the 1982 landmark decision NAACP vs. Claiborne Hardware Company protects Mckesson against Louisiana state law. As a lifelong Louisiana resident who was both present at the uprising in Baton Rouge and a witness to the police arrest of Mckesson from a few feet away, I know firsthand the implications of the court's lack of action: my fellow community members and I must now contend with a new level of repression at a time when our state, along with the rest of the South, continues to struggle against an increasingly fascist political climate that warrants nothing less than endless uprisings. 

A clear First Amendment battleground for the rights of all Americans to protest their government, the Mckesson v. Doe case put a national spotlight on both Louisiana's descent into right-wing extremism and the far-reaching national consequences implied by the bills that have been passed and proposed by its legislature. The gubernatorial inauguration of Jeff Landry—Louisiana's former attorney general and an ardent Trump ally—and the 2024 state legislative session have produced some of the most blatantly bigoted and unconstitutional laws in the nation. Mckesson v. Doe is one SCOTUS case at the center of this trend of Louisiana's legislative decisions and political influence deciding the fates of the First Amendment right to freedom of assembly for every American. 

Louisiana's Larger Legislative Landscape 

Marked by a unique bipartisan effort to usurp the longstanding rights of its residents, Louisiana's political landscape has swiftly devolved into what some residents are saying resembles a fascist government in the last four years. Following the Dobbs decision in 2022, the state witnessed this bipartisan coalition of state legislators enact a near-total outlawing of abortion. The abortion ban was supported by every female Louisiana senator, led by Democratic Senator Katrina Jackson, who sponsored the anti-abortion legislation—which was signed into law by outgoing Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, following the Dobbs decision's activating the state's trigger law. Republican Louisiana legislator Danny McCormick put the state in the national spotlight after he introduced legislation that would classify abortion as homicide, making both people who obtain abortions and their healthcare providers eligible for the death penalty in Louisiana. After a national outcry, the bill was voluntarily pulled. In response to one Louisiana resident making national headlines for being forced to flee to New York to obtain an abortion following a fetal acrania diagnosis, then-Attorney General Jeff Landry informed the press that anyone in the state who does not like the new anti-abortion decree should "move." 

The 2024 regular legislative session has been making national headlines every week, as it has swiftly advanced multiple anti-civil and human rights bills through its committees and into law. Winning the "culture wars" has taken center stage over the many pressing issues voters feel are more relevant to the state of Louisiana. HB608, formally "The Women's Safety and Protection Act," has been dubbed "the Louisiana transgender bathroom bill" by media outlets. It was signed into law in early June 2024 and will outlaw any Louisiana resident using a public restroom that does not align with their "biological sex." In addition to this, the bill strips away millions of dollars of funding from the few remaining domestic violence shelters left in Louisiana, a move that would all but close their doors entirely. 

More overt anti-LGBTQ+ bills have passed through both congressional houses and await the governor's signature, like Louisiana's own "Don't Say Gay" bill, which will bar teachers from discussing gender or sexual orientation in classrooms. Another bill, HB121, will allow teachers to refuse to acknowledge the preferred pronouns of students in their classrooms. These bills have been defended by Republican legislators as essential for the protection of Louisiana's children, and extend beyond restrooms and classrooms into the libraries that have long served as safe spaces for adolescents. HB777, sponsored by Representative Kellee Dickerson, permits sentencing librarians in Louisiana to up to two years of hard labor if they do not sever ties with the American Library Association, which is being accused of exposing children to "pornographic materials." 

The Major Players 

Louisiana politicians remain major players in the upcoming presidential election and the further elimination of civil and human rights. Landry, who was elected by about 18 percent of the state's eligible voter base, has boasted that he does not "move slow" and has ushered in an onslaught of repressive legislation with the aid of the GOP supermajority in both houses of the Louisiana legislature. In a special legislative session at the top of the year, Governor Landry's administration approved the passage of 11 bills into law—all of which nearly eliminated all the progressive criminal justice reforms established by his predecessor. Chief among these was the move to virtually end parole in the state of Louisiana beginning August 1 of this year. The new laws also limit good-time credit and post-conviction relief opportunities in the state that incarcerates the most people per capita in the developed world. This sweeping anti-progressive agenda also includes the passage of a law permitting the addition of electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia as legal methods of execution in the state's prisons. In perhaps the most shocking of all the bills passed during the first month of the Landry administration, a new gun law permits the lowering of the age of concealed carry gun ownership from 21 to 18 and, in an added statute, shields private citizens who are concealed carry gun owners from prosecution in wrongful death civil lawsuits. With homicide being the leading cause of death of pregnant women in Louisiana, and the state's leadership pledging to honor victims first, the move is being labeled as hypocritical by the masses.

Beyond the upcoming presidential election landscape, Louisiana Republican political leaders, most notably Landry, have been quietly forming the foundation of both the rollback of American civil liberties and the potential ushering in of another Trump presidency. In a major win against the rapidly diminishing rights to reproductive healthcare since the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court decision in 2022, the Biden administration has issued a new mandate that forbids doctors from providing medical records of patients to law enforcement officers in other states. Since the American people's constitutional rights to abortion were overturned, then-attorney general Jeff Landry formed a 17-state coalition of attorney generals with the expressed goal of limiting people's ability to travel out of state to obtain reproductive healthcare and forbidding access to gender-affirming care for trans youth by fortifying legislature and prosecutorial reach. The goal of the coalition is to become a national model under Republican leadership to ensure abortion and gender-affirming care are banned nationwide. 

Governor Landry has also been criticized for delaying the Supreme Court-mandated redrawing of the voting districts of Louisiana to include a second majority Black district. Black Americans are one-third of the state of Louisiana's population, but the current voting map is not representative of this and has been ruled a violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1964. The current supermajority of the state of Louisiana, under the leadership of Governor Jeff Landry, has been accused of delaying the redrawing of the map ahead of the 2024 presidential election to further gerrymander the voting rights of Black Louisianians and skew the election in favor of a win for Donald Trump in the Republican stronghold state. 

One of the newest additions to the highest court in the land is Louisiana's own Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Born and raised in New Orleans, the Trump appointee has stirred national outrage regarding her highly conservative opinions on civil rights and reproductive healthcare. The 50-year-old Justice, who had never tried a case before her appointment, last made headlines for her outrage-inducing comments during the Dobbs decision oral arguments that were decisive in the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. Since her appointment by former president Trump helped to cement the conservative majority, the court has initiated the rollback of affirmative action, tribal protections, and now, the First Amendment right to assembly and protest. Mckesson vs. Doe now leaves activists and everyday citizens who organize outside of Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana under grave risk of severe financial penalties for any injuries or damages incurred during actions.

Meanwhile, the House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has a sordid reputation for making bigoted remarks regarding Black and LGBTQ+ Americans. He was even derided by the Congressional Black Caucus for speaking at a Ku Klux Klan event hosted by former KKK leader David Duke. Scalise has also been an ardent defender of Trump in the US Department of Justice's ongoing investigations and trials against him.

Another powerful conservative Louisiana lawmaker aligned with the former president is US Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. The first Louisiana representative to occupy the third most powerful position in the country used his influence to file a legal brief to a Texas appeals court to support the overturning of President Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 election before assuming the party-elected role. When probed by a reporter at a press conference surrounded by other Republican party leaders in regard to his role in the attempted overturning of the 2020 election, he and other members of the party booed and heckled the reporter from the podium and refused to answer questions. 

Countdown 

Though the legislative landscape is proving dire for many Louisiana residents, the rest of the nation is not shielded from the consequences of Louisiana's legislative decisions. With each bill that passes—especially those that openly infringe upon protected constitutional rights—the countdown is underway for the legal challenges that will undoubtedly be presented to the Louisiana court system to fight back. Yet, as seen with Mckesson v. Doe, the sitting Republican SCOTUS justices prove formidable in their 6-3 majority rule, as they have already rolled back decades of civil rights and protections for the American public. 

With the growing influence of Louisiana on the national political landscape, the question becomes what the rest of America can do to fight against the undue influence of the state's far-right political leaders. The upcoming presidential election is fast approaching, making the need for every American to educate themselves on the ballot's impact on their daily lives and the lives of their fellow citizens dire.

https://scalawagmagazine.org/2024/07/louisiana-is-the-blueprint-for-further-fascist-repression/