Comments for Noisemaker: SCOLA Justice Bernette Johnson at http://www.theind.com , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.theind.com Sat, 25 May 2013 10:35:51 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.theind.com/news/indreporter/11362-noisemaker-scola-justice-bernette-johnson#comment-27224 Walter, please permit me a few fact checks. The term of a Louisiana Supreme Court justice is 10 years, not six. The Louisiana Constitution mandates that the Supreme Court has seven justices. This was the case except for a period of time in the 1990's when Justice Johnson's predecessor and the first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, Revius Ortigue, was appointed by the court. He served as the eighth justice. Johnson succeeded Ortigue by special appointment in 1994. At the time, Johnson was a judge on the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal appointed to serve on the Supreme Court with the other seven justices who were elected from Supreme Court districts. The Consent Decree set up this one appointed position until the retirement of Justice Marcus of New Orleans, at which time his district was turned into the minority district from which Johnson was eventually elected. That is the bargain that was struck to provide an unelected seat on the court to a minority and, at the same time, protect Marcus. In the interim, between her appointment and election, during which time she was an appellate court judge on the Fourth Circuit sitting on the Supreme Court, Justice Victory was elected to the Supreme Court. In my view, this is a legal question about the meaning of "tenure" as a justice, and not about race. If Justice Johnson was a white male, the Supreme Court would be dealing with the same issue of whether her tenure as an appellate court judge sitting by appointment counts for tenure as a Supreme Court justice. - Robert L. Broussard Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:50:55 +0100