AG Jeff Landry’s Office
Gets Multiple Wins During October 2020 Term
BATON ROUGE, LA – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry’s Office had a
successful term at the United States Supreme Court – not only winning the case
it argued, but also notching numerous victories through supportive legal
briefs. In the October 2020 Term, Attorney General Landry involved Louisiana in
18 matters that went before the Supreme Court’s Justices and was triumphant in
13 of them.
In addition to Edwards v. Vannoy – the major case in which the
Supreme Court reaffirmed long-final convictions involving rape, murder, child
molestation, and other violent crimes – Attorney General Landry’s Office led
and joined amicus briefs in legal matters dealing with free speech, public
safety, consumer protection, election integrity, economic fairness, and
religious liberty.
In Mahanoy
Area School District v. B.L., the Supreme
Court – by an 8-1 vote – upheld Louisiana’s position that the First Amendment
bars a public high school from taking disciplinary action against a student for
off-campus speech that are neither threatening nor harassing. The Justices once
again supported Attorney General Landry’s belief that students do not shed
their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression, even at school.
In Alaska
v. Sean Wright, Attorney General Landry led
a bipartisan coalition of 20 states arguing that offenders who have finished
serving their state court sentences lack standing to bring federal habeas
claims regardless of any collateral consequences of the convictions, such as
sex offender registry requirements. The Court agreed that a criminal who
already served his time for sexual abuse of a minor cannot challenge those
convictions while facing a new charge for failure to register as a sex
offender.
In Rutledge
v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, Attorney General Landry joined a legal brief arguing that
states must regulate pharmacy benefit managers in order to protect the
well-being of consumers. Since PBMs act as gatekeepers between pharmacies, drug
manufactures, health insurance plans, and consumers for access to prescription
drugs – regulation of them allows the states to improve the transparency of
prescription drug marketplaces and protect consumer access to affordable
prescription drugs, especially in rural and isolated communities. After the
Supreme Court’s unanimous decision, Attorney General Landry pledged to continue
fighting for lower drug costs for Louisiana’s patients and keep working to
protect our State’s businesses and consumers unfair trade practices.
More victories include the 6-3 decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National
Committee that reaffirmed the ability of
states to administer secure elections with outcomes every voter can trust, the
6-3 decision in HollyFrontier
Cheyenne Refining, LLC v. Renewable Fuels Association that restored small refiners’ exemptions from federal
renewable fuel blending requirements, and the 6-3 decision in Fulton v. Philadelphia that ruled government cannot discriminate against faith-based
adoption agencies.
The other wins were achieved in Dunn v. Reeves, Cedar Point Nursery v.
Hassid, Guam v. United States, Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial
District Court, Trump v. New York, and Americans for Prosperity Foundation v.
Bonta.
In response to these accomplishments, Attorney General
Landry issued the following statement: “When I ran for office, I pledged to
devote attorneys to the cause of states’ rights; and with the Legislature’s
support, we created the Federalism Division in my office and I appointed Liz
Murrill as Solicitor General. Since then, and at every level of the judicial
system, Liz and her team have done a tremendous job for our State and the
people we serve. From fighting for public safety to defending religious liberty
to protecting consumers and patients, we have upheld the rule of law this
Supreme Court Term and I look forward to the successes we will achieve in the
next.”