Louisiana Voice

The unbridled hysteria over books in our public libraries thought to be corrupting and rotting the brains of young people continues to ramp up with adults acting like children in efforts to protect youngsters from books like To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Slaughterhouse Five.

There are others, many others. In fact, in the state of Tennessee, the number of banned books jumped from 350 to 1,252 in 2025. Texas had a more modest increase but still saw its list grow from 1,469 to 1,512—and I would bet everything I own (including my ample book collection) that the critics leading the charge for “decency” haven’t read 10 percent of those books.

But back to those mentioned in the first paragraph. In case you didn’t notice, each and every one of those titles deals with racial injustice, war, anti-feminism and dystopian societies after the despots seized control. To Kill a Mockingbird, for God’s sake! The do-gooders tsk-tsk and say it makes young readers uncomfortable. Hell, that’s the damn point, you idiots! It’s supposed to make us uncomfortable—and angry—over what people are capable of doing to those they consider beneath them (not exactly what Christ meant when he said “What you do for the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).

And by the way, it’s called empathy, a characteristic the Bible teaches us but which few evangelical preachers devote their messages to these days. Instead, it’s all about “saving souls” (numbers), increased memberships (numbers) and more money for the building fund (more numbers). And empathy, in case you haven’t connected the dots, is a big part of what has come to be called WOKE. So, if you are anti-woke, I guess the logic would necessarily dictate that you’re not a true Christian, no matter how much you drop into the collection plate.

That is precisely what is happening in St. Tammany Parish, beginning in May 2024 with the REMOVAL of all existing members of the library board of control and replacing them with puppets—exactly the way it’s been done in Lafayette, Livingston and other parishes, thanks to the meddlesome efforts of one Michael Lunsford and his Citizens for a New Louisiana.

One library supporter wrote to LouisianaVoice today to say, “I feel I can safely assert that we have the most restrictive policies, the most censorship, of any peer library in the state  (I polled those close in size to us and close geographically, including: Livingston, Lafayette, Calcasieu, Terrebonne, Caddo, EBR, Orleans, Jefferson, Tangipahoa, Washington and Rapides)—and on the 63 books recently (at its April meeting) put permanently into a “restricted section,” no other peer regional libraries had any in a restricted section and several of the titles were held in teen collections at libraries in states such as Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri.”

The driving force for censorship policies for the St. Tammany Parish Library Board of Control is its president, Charles Branton (Charles.branton@stpl.us). And lest you think I’m doxxing Mr. Branton, please know his email address is posted on the board of control’s web site for all to see.

Branton’s term as president ended on Monday and the board is scheduled to either reappoint him or appoint a successor in the person of COL JASON TREW, described by our writer as “a very impressive nominee.”

“Mr. Branton has been the absolute ringleader for censorship policies, told falsehoods concerning what the law is, squelches voices that do not align with his and consults with MS. CONNIE NICHOLS PHILIPS (seen here assaulting a library ally for which she later was charged and paid damages)..

“Ms. Philips sparked the chaos by submitting over 150 book challenges on books she had not read (in fact, she does not even have a library card!). Mr. Branton allowed her to create the job description for our new (as of 2/23/26) library director without one edit.”

Last month, she received an annual award from the East St. Tammany Republican Women for her library activism.

Attending that ceremony were the parish’s new library board chair and vice chair and of course, an original library activist-turned-parish-council-member, David Cougle. Cougle is the same parish council member who attended a parish council member last year PACKING HEAT.

But it’s all those library books that are polluting the minds of the youngsters, not the gun-totin’, rootin’-tootin’ parish council members and certainly not those who don’t even own a library card.

“Library allies are asking the council NOT to reappoint Mr. Branton for these and other reasons (see letter in letter-writing campaign at next link),” our reader wrote.  “We have a  PETITION AND LETTER-WRITING CAMPAIGN HERE.  We are hoping our parish council will listen to our voices and concerns about our library [and not] only the taxpayers they choose in our tax-funded libraries. We feel certain Col. Trew will be not only a better choice to serve the parish, but has the resume’ to be outstanding in public service. We are not convinced our council will make the wise and best choice based on past votes on appointments.”

The board’s meeting will be a t 6 p.m. on Thursday (June 4). The meeting is not shown on the parish government’s website but will be uplinked HERE.

“It’s hard to make any sense of all this, but it seems to be symptomatic of the times we live in,” she wrote.

That Ultimate Fighting Championship arena sitting on the White House South Lawn installed for the June 14 fight to commemorate the 80^th birthday of der Führer, aka Mar-a-Lardo Trump, may become a PERMANENT FIXTURE for world leaders to gaze upon in awe.

And why not? I mean, we may as well just throw up our hands and allow Diaper Don Dirty Pants to decorate all of the Beltway in Early American White Trash.

We might as well throw in a dilapidated mobile home—

—and perhaps one next door for the kids who never seem to leave.

And Melania is going to need a solar-power clothes dryer.

No redneck home would be complete without a non-running car set up on blocks.

A true redneck household must have the ever-vigilant dog guarding the front porch.

No Early American White Trash administration would be caught without a shiny, black SUV for ground transportation.

I mean, if we’re going for he King of Tacky look, let’s go all in.

With no need to comment or embellishment, I offer the latest observations of historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Heather Cox Richardson employs facts and history to make observations about contemporary American politics. She has written about the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, and the American West in award-winning books whose subjects stretch from the European settlement of the North American continent to the history of the Republican Party through the Trump administration. She is the author, most recently, of the best-selling Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America.

In the link below, the infamous Wheeling, W. Va. speech of June 1, 1950, exactly 76 years ago, that gave the world McCarthyism was delivered, setting the U.S. on a course of fever-pitched pandemonium that left innocent lives and careers in ruin.

Click on the link and listen and draw your own comparisons between the hysteria of McCarthyism and today’s political climate.

If you’ve ever wondered why we as a society have a diminishing respect for our system of justice, there are ample examples of why that confidence level is eroding.

Beginning with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ridiculous 2010 ruling so affectionately known as Citizens United to the glut of pardons of criminals by the Trump administration to the way in which Louisiana courts manhandled the civil rights of former attorney Ashton O’Dwyer to the manner in which family court matters are handled in heavy-handed secrecy to the most recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court in the trial of one of the defendants in the tragic death of Madison Brooks, the evidence is there for all to see.

O’Dwyer was a prominent New Orleans attorney who was literally railroaded into oblivion by an obliging Louisiana Supreme Court in a concerted effort by other attorneys, including the then-Louisiana Attorney General, to block him from seeking class-action damages on behalf of victims of Hurricane Katrina as a result of negligence in construction and maintenance of the levees built to protect New Orleans from flooding. He was beaten, tased, fired upon with rubber pellets, imprisoned and otherwise abused by State Police and ultimately disbarred from the practice of law because he refused to pay unjust financial penalties.

Family courts are rife with examples of abuse by presiding judges, even to the extent of deliberately overcharging those unfortunate enough to end up before them exorbitant charges for copies of court documents needed to support their cases.

One need only peruse campaign contributions for most judges to understand the existence of at least the appearance of impropriety. Their campaign financial reports are heavily-weighted with contributions from attorneys who practice before them. In one case, LouisianaVoice found a judge, Dawn Amacker of the 22^nd JDC (St. Tammany and Washington parishes), whose report shows that 73.2 percent of her campaign contributions of $500 or more were from attorneys. Another report, that of Pam Baker of the East Baton Rouge Parish Family Court, was even more eye-opening, with 87.4 percent of all donations of $500 or more coming from attorneys.

The obvious response to that is what would you expect? Judges preside over attorneys; they’re all in the business of the courts.

Exactly. That’s precisely the reason LouisianaVoice has long maintained that judges should not be allowed to accept contributions from attorneys. The same logic should apply to the Public Service Commission; its members should not be allowed to accept contributions from the utilities they regulate. Nor should the Louisiana Insurance Commissioner be allowed to accept contributions from the insurance industry it regulates. And the Louisiana Attorney General? Well, the individual holding that office doesn’t oversee or otherwise regulate attorneys, per se, but the attorney general awards literally millions of dollars in contracts to attorneys to represent the state in litigation. So, does the attorney general tend to reward favored attorneys or law firms? You bet. It’s Louisiana politics in its purest form. Even Attorney General Liz Murril’s own husband’s firm has generous state contracts.

So, having said all that, it has a bad look when the Louisiana Supreme Court overturned two other courts and ruled that a judge in the Madison Brooks rape should not have been removed from the case despite a defendant’s having texted family members that the judge was a family friend and would be sympathetic to his case.

Casen John Carver is on trial for rape in the matter. Brooks, at the time of the January 2023 incident, was a student at LSU. She was allegedly raped in a moving vehicle before being dropped off and subsequently struck and killed by a passing car.

Carver is from Denham Springs and was one of four males in the vehicle when prosecutors say she was sexually assaulted.

Carver texted family members that Judge Gail Horne Ray was a friend to the family and that she had a family member who also had been accused of rape, so she would be sympathetic to his case. That 2023 text read, “And the judge we are getting, I think u know about but we are friends with her and she is really good for our case. Her son was accused of rape a while back so she knows to help us.”

Ray’s son, Nelson Dan Taylor Jr., 46, was convicted of two counts each of forcible rape and aggravated burglary in 1997. His mother was one of his trial attorneys, court records show.

Carver requested a bench trial rather than a jury trial, meaning he would have been tried before only a judge with there being no chance for a jury to decide his fate.

That, along with the text, would—or should—give ample justification for the presiding judge to recuse herself. Instead, fellow 19^th JDC JUDGE BRAD MYERS ruled that despite finding no evidence of bias on Judge Ray’s part, Carver’s statements were “particularly concerning” and that the recusal was necessary to “safeguard public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

A check of Judge Ray’s political campaign finance reports shows that Carver’s attorney, Joe Long, contributed $1000 to her campaign on Nov. 10, 2022—a couple of months before Brooks died.

Still, the Supreme Court’s reversal would have us believe there was no reason for recusal, that there is no appearance of impropriety or conflict. So much for “safeguard[ing] public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

Which, again, underscores the reason for the decline in faith of our judicial system.