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Explainer: What’s on the March 29 ballot? [1]

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Date: 2025-03-17

Early voting started on Saturday (March 15) on four potential amendments to the state constitution that, taken together, would expand the power of the state legislature in the criminal legal system and dramatically overhaul the state’s tax law.

The four proposed amendments were drafted last November during a special session called by Gov. Jeff Landry to address fiscal matters as well as “crimes that are not subject to special juvenile procedures.”

Opponents of the proposed amendments have criticized the fact that the election is happening on March 29.

Sarah Whittington with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana argues that those measures could have been included on this year’s Nov. 15 ballots – when Orleans and East Baton Rouge parishes will likely see higher turnout parish-wide elections.

“I think it’s pretty clear that instead of being able to wholesale rewrite the Constitution as he’d hoped, he’s coming at it piecemeal,” Whittington told Verite News. “He’s putting these elections on low voter turnout days, hoping that folks are not paying attention, to undermine a lot of the constitutional protections, checks and balances and authority that our voters have.”

But proponents of the proposed amendments have said that the March 29 election date will mean that any amendments are made before the next regular legislative session beginning in April.

Landry, for his part, has championed all four of the amendments and even gave a public address specifically urging voters to support Amendment 2. He did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

As of publication time, at least three of the proposed amendments are currently ensnared in legal challenges, making it possible that they might ultimately be removed from ballots. For now, voters can still vote on all four proposed amendments to the state constitution. Early voting runs from March 15 to March 22, and Election Day is March 29.

So, what does each proposed amendment do? What are the arguments given by proponents and opponents of each amendment? And which ones may be sidelined by legal challenges?

Amendment 1: Establishing specialty courts

Ballot language: Do you support an amendment granting the Louisiana Supreme Court jurisdiction to discipline out-of-state lawyers for unethical legal practices in the state of Louisiana, and to grant the legislature the authority to establish trial courts of limited and specialized jurisdiction?

State lawmakers say Amendment 1 would do two things: first, give the state Supreme Court the ability to discipline out-of-state lawyers for unethical legal practices in Louisiana cases; second, grant the legislators the authority to establish specialized courts outside of existing, mostly parish-level districts.

Opponents of the amendment take issue with giving lawmakers more power to make new, potentially more expansive courts.

As it stands, legislators can only create specialized courts inside of existing districts. Legislators have used this authority to create courts focused on specialized issues like substance use, behavioral health and family preservation.

Amendment 1, if approved, would empower state legislators to create these specialized courts on a regional or statewide basis – outside of the current district court system, where judges are locally elected.

Sen. Jay Morris, R-Monroe, who drafted the bill, has said the ability to create special courts would allow legislators to form a statewide court to handle business disputes. As previously reported by the Louisiana Illuminator, business courts are a relatively new legal phenomenon, only emerging in the last 25 years. Today, over half of U.S. states have business courts, but each state has established business courts in a different way.

“You’re potentially creating large statewide courts which would have statewide elected judges,” Whittington said. “And you’re suddenly taking the idea of a jury of your peers and moving it out of these communities. And how much harder would it be for someone to seek justice or have their day in court when the business is in Baton Rouge, the court is in Baton Rouge, and someone, unfortunately, has to travel from New Orleans or Houma or Shreveport or Monroe just to have a case heard?”

Whittington also said that the amendment uses misleading language. While it leads with language about empowering the Louisiana Supreme Court, she says it ultimately is a measure that would empower state legislators above locally elected officials, like district attorneys and judges.

“Amendment 1 will undermine the power of the judiciary to create and fund the court systems that Louisiana needs, and basically empower the legislature to create all their own new courts,” Whittington said. “You’re basically being asked to give them a blank slate, and they could do with it whatever they want.”

Morris did not respond to a request for comment.

But Amendment 1 is currently being legally challenged by the nonprofit Voice of the Experienced, which filed a lawsuit on March 10 alleging that the Louisiana Legislature violated the mandated process to bring proposed constitutional amendments to the ballot. The lawsuit also alleges that the proposed amendment violates the constitution’s “one object” requirement, which dictates that any amendment going to voters needs to suggest one change, whereas Amendment 1 seeks to make two changes. Accordingly, the group is asking a judge to remove Amendment 1 from the ballot.

Amendment 2: Changing tax law

Ballot Language: Do you support an amendment to revise Article VII of the Constitution of Louisiana including revisions to lower the maximum rate of income tax, increase income tax deductions for citizens over sixty-five, provide for a government growth limit, modify operation of certain constitutional funds, provide for property tax exemptions retaining the homestead exemption and exemption for religious organizations, provide a permanent teacher salary increase by requiring a surplus payment to teacher retirement debt, and make other modifications?

Amendment 2 represents more than 100 pages of changes to Louisiana’s tax law. These include liquidating several trust funds, narrowing property tax exemptions and applying limits to the state’s general fund spending, among dozens of other changes.

This is the hallmark amendment representing the fiscal overhaul that Landry hoped to achieve with the special session in November – and something that the governor has been stumping for in recent weeks.

“Amendment 2 is a game changer, and it will build upon the successes that we have had in lowering crime and fixing education,” Landry said in a public address earlier this month. “And it adds to the other tax reform measures that have helped us win the largest economic project in our state’s history.”

But critics of the amendment have raised concerns over the sweeping and varied changes that voters are being asked to make with a simple “yes” or “no” vote. They argue that the governor and other proponents of the amendment are foregrounding the positives – like alleged teacher pay raises – and burying the negatives.

“I think it’s impossible to accurately and thoroughly reflect everything that voters are being asked to consider,” said Jan Moller, the executive director of the nonprofit Invest in Louisiana. “I think the broad, high-level concern I have is that this amendment, if passed, would kind of lock in the status quo and give the legislature a lot less flexibility going forward to make decisions about who to tax, how to tax and how to spend money.”

The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, an independent good governance group, published a nonpartisan guide to the amendments. Because of Amendment 2’s breadth, the group broke down the amendment’s impact on six topic areas: general taxing authority, government growth limit, merger of state savings accounts, elimination of educational trust funds, the reorganization of other trust funds and property taxes. Each topic area goes into the details on some of the amendment’s changes.

PAR writes that Amendment 2 would lower the individual income tax rate from 4.75% to 3.75%, limit how much the state can increase annual general fund spending, merge two state savings funds, liquidate educational trust funds to pay down retirement debt and narrow some property tax exemptions, among many other changes.

The ballot language also mentions a permanent teacher pay raise. Under Amendment 2, a current stipend of $1,000 to $2,000 would be made permanent and folded into teacher salaries. Because of this change, the amendment has earned the endorsement of the two largest teacher unions in the state: the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the Louisiana Association of Educators.

However, the amendment is also facing a legal challenge. Attorney William Most, who filed the suit on behalf of a group of Louisiana voters, said that the ballot language is misleading and non-representative. The lawsuit also alleges that the amendment violates the “one object” rule. A judge will consider whether to remove Amendment 1 from the ballot.

Sen. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, who sponsored the bill and chairs the senate’s Ways and Means committee, did not respond to a request for comment.

Amendment 3: Empowering the legislature to decide when juveniles should be charged as adults with felony crimes

Ballot Language: Do you support an amendment to provide the legislature the authority to determine which felony crimes, when committed by a person under the age of seventeen, may be transferred for criminal prosecution as an adult?

Amendment 3 would let the state legislature determine which state laws can result in children under the age of 17 being tried as adults, removing from the state constitution a list of specific felonies where prosecutors are already empowered to do so. Without that list, lawmakers can more readily expand which crimes by which they can charge children as adults.

Sen. Heather Cloud, R-Turkey Creek, introduced the bill during the special session. But, as reported by the Louisiana Illuminator, Cloud did not provide specifics about the bill and its intent during session.

“Currently, for all the things that society deems the most heinous crime, we can already transfer kids to adult courts,” said Kristen Rome, the executive director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights. Rome noted that children can currently be charged as adults when charged with murders, attempted murders, all forms of kidnapping, all forms of rape and burglary.

“And the most important question that was proposed to the legislator that proposed this or introduced this bill was, ‘What crimes are you talking about that young people cannot be transferred to adult court for that is causing more harm to our community?’” Rome said. “And she could not answer it. She could not name a single crime that is currently not transferable.”

Landry has repeatedly advocated for tough-on-crime positions and identified youth crime as a particular concern for him, despite evidence to the contrary.

An investigation by Verite News and ProPublica reported that most of the young people impacted by a recent revision to the state’s criminal code, which lowered the age of adult jurisdiction from 18 to 17 – reversing previous “raise the age” legislation passed only a few years prior – were accused of committing minor, nonviolent crimes.

This amendment has also faced a legal challenge by VOTE. The nonprofit’s lawsuit alleges that the amendment goes beyond what the terms of the special session were, since the governor has called for an amendment “regarding the crimes that are not subject to special juvenile procedures.” A judge will decide whether the amendment will still be included on the ballot.

Cloud did not respond to a request for comment.

Amendment 4: Setting judicial election dates

Ballot Language: Do you support an amendment to provide for the use of the earliest election date to fill judicial vacancies?

Amendment 4 speeds up the process by which judicial vacancies are filled, requiring the governor to call for an election at either the next congressional or gubernatorial election if there is one within the year or the first available election date.

This amendment was drafted in response to a new state law creating a closed primary system for certain elections, including for elections to the Louisiana Supreme Court. Depending on when a seat on the Supreme Court is vacated, this new closed primary system could require an extra election. Because the state is required to fill seats on the high court within 12 months, a primary runoff or a general election could delay that timeline.

Proponents of the amendment argue that it addresses the way that the new closed primary system could impact state Supreme Court elections, while opponents argue it is overly broad since it would apply to all judicial elections.

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[1] Url: https://veritenews.org/2025/03/17/explainer-louisiana-constitutional-amendments/

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