The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part of the
legislative instrument, were prepared by Matt DeVille.
DIGEST
SB 308 Original 2022 Regular Session Hewitt
Present constitution (Const. Art. V, §3) provides the supreme court must be composed of a chief
justice and six associate justices.
Present constitution (Const. Art. V, §4) provides the state must be divided into at least six supreme
court districts, and at least one judge shall be elected from each. Further provides the districts and
the number of judges assigned to each on the effective date of present constitution are retained,
subject to change by law enacted by two-thirds of the elected members of each house of the
legislature.
Proposed law redraws district boundaries for the seven supreme court districts.
Proposed law provides the district boundaries become effective upon signature of the governor or
lapse of time for gubernatorial action for the purposes of qualifying for election and the election of
a member of the supreme court from District 6 at the regularly scheduled election for such office in
2022.
Proposed law provides that each justice in office on January 1, 2023, shall be the justice for the
district having the same designation as the district from which the justice was elected and shall
complete the term for which he was elected. Provides that the successor to the office of justice of the
supreme court shall be elected from the district assigned to that office as provided in proposed law
and that election shall be from the district composed as provided by R.S. 13:101.2.
Proposed law provides an effective date of January 1, 2023, for subsequent elections of members of
the supreme court and for all other purposes, at which time present law is repealed and proposed
districts are effective for all other purposes.
Proposed law repeals present law that provides for an additional judgeship for the Court of Appeal
for the Fourth Circuit who is assigned to the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Proposed law specifies that precincts referenced in district descriptions are those precincts identified
as Voting Districts (VTDs) in the 2020 Census Redistricting TIGER/Line Shapefiles for the state
of La. as validated through the data verification program of the La. legislature. Also specifies that
if any such precinct has been subdivided by action of the parish governing authority on a
nongeographic basis or subdivided by action of the parish governing authority on a geographic basis
in accordance with present law, the enumeration of the general precinct designation shall include all
nongeographic and all geographic subdivisions thereof. Further provides that the territorial limits of
the districts as enacted shall continue in effect without change regardless of any subsequent change
made to the precincts by the parish governing authority. Population data in the summaries accompanying this digest are derived from 2020 Census
Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171), Summary File for Louisiana. Population data, statistical
information, and maps are supplied for purposes of information and analysis and comprise no part
of proposed law.
Effective See Act.
(Adds R.S. 13:101.2 and 101.3; repeals R.S. 13:101, 101.1, and 312.4)