1974 Louisiana Constitution-Declaration of Rights
§22. Access to Courts
Section 22. “All courts shall be open, and every person shall have an adequate remedy by due process of law and justice, administered without denial, partiality, or unreasonable delay, for injury to him in his person, property, reputation, or other rights.”
(Special thanks to Tony Guarisco for researching this provision of the State Constitution.)
This is about yet two more examples of how Gov. Bobby Jindal conveniently manages to look the other way instead of being up front when confronted with issues that most might believe could present a conflict of interest
When Jindal signed SB 469 into law on Friday he not only killed the pending lawsuit against 97 oil, gas and pipeline companies by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E) but he also placed in extreme jeopardy the claims by dozens of South Louisiana municipalities and parish governments from the disastrous 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill that killed 11 men and discharged 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, spoiling beaches and killing fish and wildlife.
By now, most people who have followed the bill authored by Sen. Bret Allain (R-Franklin) but inspired by Sen. Robert Adley (R-Benton) know that big oil poured money and thousands of lobbying man hours into efforts to pass the bill with its accompanying amendment that makes the prohibition against such lawsuits retroactive to ensure that the SLPFA-E effort was thwarted.
Most followers of the legislature and of the lawsuit also know that up to 70 legal scholars, along with Attorney General Buddy Caldwell, strongly advised Jindal to veto the law because of the threat to the pending BP litigation.
Altogether, the 144 current legislators received more than $5 million and Jindal himself received more than $1 million from oil and gas interests. Allain received $30,000 from the oil lobby and Adley an eye-popping $600,000.
So, when BP lobbyists began swarming around the Capitol like blow flies buzzing around a bloated carcass, the assumption was that BP somehow had a stake in the passage of SB 469 and that infamous amendment making the bill retroactive.
John Barry, a former SLFPA-E who was given the Jindal Teague Treatment but who stuck around to pursue the lawsuit, said, “During the last few days of the session, we were very well aware that the BP lobbyists were extraordinarily active. They were all over the place. We all assumed there was definitely something it in for them.”
Something in it for them indeed.
Russel Honore said it another way, observing wryly that the Exxon flag still flies over the State Capitol.
Blogger Lamar White, Jr. observed that former Gov. Edwin Edwards spent eight years in a federal prison for accepting payments from hopeful casino operators for his assistance in obtaining licenses—all after he left office. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was similarly convicted of using his position to steer business to a family-owned company and taking free vacations meals and cell phones from people attempting to score contracts or incentives from the city.
So what is the difference between what they did and the ton of contributions received by Adley and Jindal? To paraphrase my favorite playwright Billy Wayne Shakespeare, a payoff by any other name smells just as rank.
And while big oil money flowed like liquor at the State Capitol (figuratively of course; it’s illegal to make or accept campaign contributions during the legislative session), what many may not know is that Jindal may have had an ulterior motive when he signed the bill into law against sound legal advice not to do so, thus protecting the interests of big oil over the welfare of Louisiana citizens who have seen frightening erosion of the state’s shoreline and freshwater marshes.
The Washington, D.C., law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is one of the firms that represented BP in negotiating a $4.5 billion settlement that ended criminal charges against the company. Included in that settlement amount was a $1.26 billion criminal fine to be paid over five years.
An associate of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who has defended clients in government audit cases and in several whistleblower cases is one Nikesh Jindal.
He also is assigned to the division handling the BP case.
Nikesh Jindal is the younger brother of Gov. Piyush, aka Bobby Jindal.
Suddenly, John Barry’s words take on a little more significance: “We all assumed there was definitely something it in for them.”
Something in it for them indeed.
And that’s not the only instance in which Jindal neglected to be completely candid about connections between him and his brother.
In yet another of his increasingly frequent op-ed columns, this one for the Washington Examiner, prolific writer and part time governor Jindal staked out his position of support of for-profit colleges in their battle against the Obama administration.
A 2012 report by the Senate Committee on Health, Labor and Pensions said that between 2008 and 2009, more than a million students attended schools owned by for-profit companies and by 2010, 54 percent of those had left school without a degree or certificate.
The committee also found that associate degree and certificate programs cost an average of four times the cost of degree program at comparable community colleges. Moreover, bachelor’s degree programs at for-profit colleges cost 20 percent more than flagship public universities.
Jindal disputed proposed U.S. Department of Education “gainful employment” rules that would tie federal aid at for-profit and public and private vocational and certificate programs to their success in preparing students for gainful employment.
“The message from this administration couldn’t be clearer,” Jindal wrote in suggesting that the Obama administration policies are tantamount to “redlining educational opportunities” for low-income and minority youths. “If you want to attend an elite professional school you could end up having tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt forgiven by your school and the federal government. But if you’re a struggling African-American single mother relying on a certificate program at a for-profit school or a community college and you like your current education plan—under this administration, you have about as much chance of keeping it as you do your health plan.”
Critics of the for-profit institutions, however, claim that the schools recruit vulnerable students, some of whom do not even possess a high school diploma, charge exorbitant tuition and encourage students to take out huge student loans they will never be able to repay.
Once again, it was what went unsaid that is significant.
Nikesh Jindal, it turns out, has represented the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities (APSCU), in an earlier legal battle with the Obama administration.
Nikesh Jindal “historically has been part of the team representing APSCU in litigation,” said Noah Black, APSCU spokesman, and was listed as one of the attorneys for the association in its successful challenge to a Department of Education rule that colleges must become certified in each state in which they enroll students.
For a man of repeated claims of transparency, Gov. Bobby Jindal’s lack of candor is awfully opaque.
Louisiana Voice 
I wondered why a legal opinion from the Attorney General would be totally disregarded by the Governor. Now I know! Thanks, Tom!
Thank heavens SB 469 will be, like so many other pieces of legislation proposed by Jindal and rubber stamped by our compliant legislators, declared unconstitutional. So go ahead SLFPA-E, file your suit soon and let the courts quickly declare SB 469 unconstitutional so we, the citizens of the “dumbed down” state of Louisiana can get back to the business of protecting our state assets from the special interest thieves and our complicit legislature and governor.
Just another normal day in Bobby’s world. Would not want to be him when his world crashes in on him.
Thanks Tom
Is that the Piper I hear tuning up? Ha! Ha! Can’t wait!!
[…] Louisiana Voice – Did Jindal tell us his brother’s law firm represents BP before signing SB 469? We didn’t get the… […]
What a surprise – another person running around this state with Jindal’s genetic defects – feel bad for the brother’s firm.
Actually, he had the good sense to leave Louisiana for Washington—maybe when his brother got elected governor.
Thank you, Louisiana, for being hard-nosed Republican….we really have enjoyed having this butt as governor -_-
[…] https://louisianavoice.com/2014/06/09/did-jindal-tell-us-his-brothers-law-firm-represents-bp-before-s… […]
[…] 1974 Louisiana Constitution-Declaration of Rights §22. Access to Courts Section 22. "All courts shall be open, and every person shall have an adequate remedy by due process of law and justice, admi… […]
Yeah good after the fact reporting there guys. What’s next on the burner Watergate?
[…] And while big oil money flowed like liquor at the State Capitol (figuratively of course; it’s illegal to make or accept campaign contributions during the legislative session), what many may not know is that Jindal may have had an ulterior motive when he signed the bill into law against sound legal advice not to do so, thus protecting the interests of big oil over the welfare of Louisiana citizens who have seen frightening erosion of the state’s shoreline and freshwater marshes. (Source) […]
[…] https://louisianavoice.com/2014/06/09…-press-office/ Quote: […]
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/recall-governor-bobby.fb52?source=s.icn.fb&r_by=10760007
Bobby Jindal should be impeached. You people better get on it quick. I’m sure you can get enough signatures to get that corrupt self serving jerk out. He is so fricken disgusting
Will we have a state left when Jindal is gone?
I’ll take Edwards any day, any time over this clown.
Edwards skimmed the pot. Jindal gave the whole damn pot away.
He gave away the stove and the whole doggone kitchen!!!
I am angry with a white hot heat that the Jindals will also be profiting from GRAD Act, particularly from the corollary admission requirements that will take full effect this fall semester. A significant percentage of our state’s college-bound (or at least college-aspirant) high school graduates will not be eligible for the four-year institutions. I define those as students who complete the Core 4 curriculum which generally runs around 35,000 students, give or take, a year. Out of those, a mere handful of students statewide (by handful I mean approximately 600 of all students and 150 or so African-American students) will be eligible for the “regional” institutions and not the “statewide” or “flagship” institutions. The regionals and HBCUs are left with NO DISCRETE MARKET and all the institutions will essentially be fighting for the same students—you know, the ones who already have college options. This fall, relaxed admission standards for older, non-traditional students 25+ also goes away. Transfer admission requirements were already stiffened when the standards first took effect in 2010-11. I am now an admissions director at one of the institutions that will be most affected—I was an associate director at another state institution when they were first announced—and I have been asking for four years since the admission requirements were announced, “Where are all these other students going to go?” Not to our underfunded and underdeveloped community college system, which in many areas are already filled to capacity or near capacity, and in many areas doesn’t have capacity to fit them all? No, my guess then was that the most vulnerable would go to for-profits if indeed they went anywhere.
Well, well, well, Gov. Jindal, your little op ed indicates I was right, and your friends in the for-profit sector who are building new buildings and heavily recruiting our students on buses and billboards know the numbers as well as I do. Except they are allowed to recruit them. I can’t by state law. I get to compete against all the other state institutions who will be cannibalizing each other for survival (and we can’t all compete with LSU, or even UL Lafayette or LaTech, nor should we have to!!!), and the numbers clearly indicate that we won’t all survive the coming carnage that is sure to take place as you go on to whatever bigger or better things you have planned after you leave office. WISE is a nice little bone you threw us in order to keep us from focusing on the students we are not allowed to recruit and enroll anymore. Hope your brother is happy with the windfall of your administration and gets himself a nice promotion. Expect me to release more details, Mr. Jindal, now that the pieces have all fallen into place. And feel free to pressure my employer to fire me. It will be an honor.
That’s why i’m wondering on how a governor works in our individual country.
[…] A stunning new piece on the Louisiana Voice website raises the Jindal family connection to the British oil giant in noting that BP had lobbied heavily for the levee board lawsuit legislation. Its piece quotes John Barry, the former levee board member who had been a driving force behind the lawsuit: […]
[…] We’re not holding our breath that if and when the money gets here, it will be used to restore the gulf, clean up the mess, and help the people and animals whose lives have been devastated. Why you ask? Bobby Jindal has been fighting to keep the social costs created by this dirty and reckless industry away from those liable. He’s also got an interesting connection to the law firm that represents BP. His brother wo… […]
The laws are clear. Jindal’s brother and their law firm on BP’s side is a total conflict of interest. This makes Piyush and his brother criminals. Yet the people has not done anything. Oh and $4.5 billion is not enough for the state also BP’s $48 billion clean up is not near enough to do the job correctly. Cover it all up maybe but not to clean it up properly. I try to avoid gulf food but who knows what is in the products of food distributors and corporations. You think they will label where there seafood comes from? Hell no. Even if they claim it’s safe using seafood from gulf. It’s a lie. I know what that stuff does including Halliburton’s illegal use of illegal dispersant.