Category: Louisiana
A red-state lawfare shakedown heads to the Supreme Court
The Republican Party claims to stand against lawfare — especially the obscene, rent-seeking variety that disguises itself as environmental justice. Yet that principle is about to be tested in a highly public and deeply embarrassing way.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on January 12 in Chevron v. Plaquemines Parish. Louisiana officials will face off against the Trump Justice Department and American energy producers in a landmark case over an attempted shakedown of oil companies for alleged responsibility for coastal erosion dating back to World War II.
Lawfare does not become acceptable because Republicans use it. And environmental shakedowns do not become conservative simply because they originate in a red state.
The basic claim is simple enough. Louisiana and several local governments have filed dozens of lawsuits alleging that oil and gas production over the last 80 years caused the erosion of the state’s coastline. But the structure and substance of these cases reveal something far more troubling.
Although the lawsuits were filed in the name of the state and its municipalities, control has effectively been handed over to politically connected plaintiffs’ lawyers — major donors who stand to reap enormous contingency fees. Through a so-called common interest agreement, the Louisiana attorney general’s office surrendered its obligation to independently assess the merits of the claims. In practice, the state abdicated its role to the trial-lawyer donor class.
That alone should raise alarms. The rest only makes it worse.
The lawsuits seek to impose liability for conduct that was lawful at the time and occurred as far back as eight decades ago. Ex post facto liability is fundamentally un-American, which is why almost no one attempts to defend it on the merits.
Even more awkward for Louisiana’s theory, virtually everyone outside the plaintiffs’ bar agrees on the primary cause of coastal erosion: decades of federal intervention by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which radically altered water flow in the Mississippi Delta. Louisiana once sued the federal government on exactly this basis. Now the same damage is somehow blamed on oil companies instead.
Because these claims reach back to the 1940s, they sweep in oil production carried out at the direction of the U.S. government to support the war effort — specifically the refining of aviation fuel for the military. It is a strange irony that after years of Democrat-led lawfare under the Biden administration, a red state has now delivered environmental litigation over World War II to the Supreme Court.
The hypocrisy is hard to miss.
The venue fight exposes the real game. Plaintiffs’ lawyers insist these cases remain in Louisiana state courts. The reason is obvious. Those courts are heavily influenced by the trial bar and have a record of staggering verdicts. Chevron was recently hit with a $745 million judgment in one such case.
Energy producers want the cases moved to federal court — not because victory is guaranteed but because federal courts are more likely to function as neutral arbiters. There is also a compelling jurisdictional reason: Much of the challenged activity involved federally directed wartime production. If any court belongs here, it is a federal one.
RELATED: America First energy policy is paying off at the pump
Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images
This kind of forum shopping should look familiar. It mirrors the Democrats’ strategy during the Biden years — carefully selecting friendly state courts to pursue political outcomes they could not secure through legislation. Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) and Attorney General Liz Murrill (R) appear to have absorbed all the wrong lessons from all the wrong actors.
This is the same playbook used by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) when she charged President Trump in state court for conduct governed by federal law. It is the same model California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) embraced when he partnered with trial lawyers to sue energy companies for billions over alleged climate harms.
Step back from the legal details and a larger problem comes into focus.
President Trump’s agenda prioritizes American energy dominance. His actions abroad reinforce that priority. Yet Republicans in Louisiana are not merely opposing that objective — they are using the very lawfare tactics they claim to despise to undermine it.
For voters trying to apply a consistent ideological framework, the whiplash is real. When red states start behaving like California, it is fair to ask whether America First has drifted from a governing philosophy into a monetization strategy.
Lawfare does not become acceptable because Republicans use it. And environmental shakedowns do not become conservative simply because they originate in a red state. If the right intends to oppose lawfare, it needs to oppose it everywhere — especially when its own allies are the ones doing the shaking down.
Cops Arrest Man Reportedly Targeting ICE Agents, Tie Him To Leftist Terror Group
Legnon operated online under the alias “Black Witch”
Unruly anti-ICE protesters shut down NOLA city council meeting — police carry out activist
New Orleans City Council’s Thursday meeting was brought to a standstill by spitting-mad activists protesting the Trump administration’s recent immigration crackdown in the city.
‘We’ll be back.’
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed this week the launch of Operation Catahoula Crunch in the Louisiana city, targeting criminal illegal aliens. The immigration enforcement efforts sparked backlash from some in the local community.
During a Thursday New Orleans City Council meeting, residents lined up to demand that council members designate all city-owned properties as “ICE-free zones” and pass an ordinance that prevents cooperation with immigration officials.
Several demonstrators held signs that read, “No collaboration with ICE/DHS.”
The council repeatedly muted the microphone after informing the protesters that their remarks were “not germane” to the agenda items.
Despite this, the activists continued to approach the microphone during public comments to repeat their demands. A couple of protesters refused to sit down and continued to shout and disrupt the meeting.
RELATED: This Southern sanctuary city is next on the list for federal immigration law enforcement
Photo by Adam GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
Council members responded by suspending public comment on the agenda item and calling a recess.
The crowd of protesters then erupted, shouting and screaming at both the council members and the police officers present in the chamber.
Videos captured by FreedomNews.tv showed police officers slowly escorting the protesting crowd out of the building, with many individuals refusing to leave. Several officers were forced to carry out one unruly activist.
After several minutes of scuffling, shouting, cursing, and some protesters defiantly raising middle fingers at officers, the crowd was finally locked out of the premises.
“We’ll be back,” they shouted at the police from the other side of the fence.
RELATED: Man flings Molotov cocktails at federal building while yelling ‘anti-ICE’ comments, feds say
Photo by Adam GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
According to NOLA.com, 30 protesters were ejected from the council’s chambers.
Toni Jones, an organizer for the event and a member of the New Orleans Alliance against Racial and Political Repression, told Verite News, “We haven’t seen City Council take a stand, and we demand that they declare they will not cooperate with [ICE] in any way.”
On Thursday, DHS highlighted the arrest of a kidnapper and sex offender as a result of Operation Catahoula Crunch. According to the department, he was previously sentenced to 40 years in prison and later released on parole.
“These are SICK people who have lived among us for far too long. THEY WILL GO BACK,” DHS stated.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
