That hateful, smugly, self-serving Executive Order 15-8 signed by Grovernor Jindal on Tuesday could ultimately blow up in his face, although his tenure as grovernor will be long over by the time the courts get around to ruling on his license to openly discriminate against gays.
In case you’ve been living in a cave these past few months, Jindal signed the executive order this week, in effect enacting the Louisiana Marriage and Conscience Act only hours after House Bill 707 by freshman Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Bossier City) was rejected in a 10-2 vote by the House Civil Law Committee.
Similar bills were passed by state legislatures in Indiana and Arkansas earlier this year.
Standing beside Jindal as he made the announcement of the executive order was Johnson but that ceremony could well be as close to a victory for the bill as the two tools of Gene Mills, Tony Perkins and Grover Norquist will get.
That’s because a challenge to a previous executive order, BJ 2012-16 (that would be the 16th executive order of year 2012) was upheld by the First Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge back in December and last month the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to hear the matter.
Janice Clark, 19th District Court Judge in Baton Rouge had approved the state’s motion to dismiss the case brought by the Louisiana Hospital Association (LHA) and the Louisiana State Medical Society against the Department of Insurance over Jindal’s executive order. The case will now be tried on its merits in state district court as a result of the higher court’s reversal.
Though far from over, observers will be watching the LHA closely case as it unfolds so as to gauge the effect it has on the governor’s powers to issue executive orders such as the one he handed down on Tuesday relative to the so-called marriage and conscience act which opponents see as little more than an effort to legally deny services by retail establishments, schools and medical facilities to gay couples.
The decision by the First Circuit, throwing the challenge to Jindal’s 2012 executive order back into state district court could impact his latest executive decision as well—long after a new governor has moved into the Capitol’s fourth floor. https://casetext.com/case/la-hosp-assn-la-state-med-socy-v-state
That 2012 order, creating Rule 26, suspended existing laws and granted far-reaching powers to Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon in the wake of Hurricane Isaac in August of 2012. The order’s justification was that Donelon could “be hindered in the proper performance of his duties and responsibilities…without the authority to suspend certain statutes in the Louisiana Insurance Code and the rules and regulations that implement the Louisiana Insurance Code including, but not limited to, cancellation, nonrenewal, reinstatement, premium payment and claim filings with regard to any and all types of insurance subject to the Louisiana Insurance Code.”
Accordingly, Jindal made the suspension of rules applicable to all insurance lines, including health maintenance organizations (HMOs), health and accident insurance, as well as property and casualty lines. Read the entire Rule 26 HERE.
LHA and the State Medical Society immediately filed their joint petition seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive and declaratory relief against the Department of Insurance, challenging the constitutionality of the rule.
Along with several other specific challenges, they claimed that the state statute does not grant the governor the authority to make “substantive, affirmative law.”
But it is the challenge to the governor’s authority to make “substantive, affirmative law” that should attract the attention of opponents of this week’s executive order.
It’s not likely that a ruling will be made on the 2012 executive order and the accompanying Rule 26 before Jindal leaves office and even it a ruling does come down, it’s likely to be appealed. But should a ruling adverse to his 2012 order, especially on the point of the governor’s ability to make law, result, it would obviously bolster the courage of opponents of the latest order creating the marriage and conscience act that specifically singles out gays on religious grounds but which could conceivably be expanded to other target groups.
No matter which direction the legal winds ultimately blow, the resulting publicity will be used by Jindal to continue to project himself onto the national stage, an invitation that has thus far eluded him.
If he wins, he will crow that justice has prevailed because his policy was on the same page with God. Should he lose, obviously, the judiciary will have come under left-wing, liberal influence.
Louisiana Voice 
Tom, does an Executive Order carry the same weight as a statutory law and does it have unlimited life? What would have to be done in order to vacate this Executive Order?
Yes, they do have the same effect as law.
http://www.nga.org/cms/home/management-resources/governors-powers-and-authority.html
John the next Governor can kill it, but, unfortunately if that sad sack Vitter is elected which I certainly hope not. He will probably keep it in effect!
Knowing Vitter, he may try to make the order even stronger. Hell, this might become one of his campaign promises.
John, note Louisiana R. S. 49:315 below:
§215. Executive orders; procedures; limitations
A. The authority of the governor to see that the laws are faithfully executed by issuing executive orders is recognized.
B. Each executive order issued by the governor shall be published in the Louisiana Register as required by the provisions of R.S. 49:954.1.
C. Each executive order issued by the governor shall terminate and shall be void and of no effect on such date as shall be provided in the executive order or a subsequent executive order. If no such termination date is provided by executive order, the order shall terminate sixty days following adjournment sine die of the regular session of the legislature after the issuing governor leaves office.
D. The governor may establish executive branch agencies by executive order. Any agency so created shall terminate on such date as is provided in the executive order or by subsequent executive order, which termination date shall be within one year of the date of issuance of the order, or, if no such date is stated, one year from the date of issuance of the order, unless the agency is, within such period, statutorily created or terminated by the legislature.
E. Whenever an executive order issued by the governor provides for an appointment to public office, whether to a board, commission, committee, executive or other office and whether to fill an initial or succeeding full term of office or the unexpired portion of a term of office, the governor shall submit the appointment to the Senate for confirmation. After initial confirmation by the Senate, reconfirmation shall not be required for appointments by the governor to any board or commission which is established by the Constitution of Louisiana.
Dear Tom – advice needed please.
Now that jindal has issued his executive order from hell, I need to know what to do when entering a bakery. Or the bakery section of our local grocery store. Or whatever business might be operated by some Christian cultist whose faith may be different from my own.
How are business owners going to discern which customers to serve and which to show the door? If I walk into a bakery with my daughter and order a wedding cake, do we have to prove we are mother/daughter and not a May/September couple? What if we lie and they deliver the cake only to find out we are going to use it for an unauthorized (by the business owner) wedding? Can they have us arrested or sue us for misrepresentation?
When I enter a bakery, will I have to fill out a questionnaire about who I am, what I believe and my intentions for the baked goods? Are all baked goods covered or just cakes? Since my husband (a man) of 35 years and I (a woman) have different last names, could we be banned from purchasing baked goods? To prove we are actually married and not living in sin, do I need to carry my marriage license and wedding pictures when shopping? Is living in sin covered by the edict, too?
To avoid embarrassment are business owners going to put up signs in their windows saying things like “No gay/lesbian persons need apply to buy cakes” or “Heteros welcome, all others move on,” or “Gays welcome to spend their money here on anything except cakes.” Or do the business owners WANT to intentionally humiliate potential customers by determining their gender identity and throwing them out if the wrong answer is forthcoming?
What’s a person to do? Who is going to write the rules? Who is going to enforce them? Will the police be involved or will a new bureaucracy like the Cake Police be formed? Maybe jindal could call them…with apologies to Stevie Wonder… LA Sharia-mor.
If the legislature is truely against this “law,” then they should pass an actual law that prevents the government from spending funds to enact this in any fashion.
But perhaps they’re more interested in receiving a plumb job later than rocking the boat?
Tom,
I’m totally against Jindal signing this executive order. He has as much right to do it as Obama has signing executive amnesty…none. If the legislature failed to pass it, then it should have died. I also don’t mind you calling Jindal a tool. He is one. A big one. He uses religion as a calling card whenever he finds it politically expedient. He commandeered this bill as his own strictly for the media attention it brought. He was hoping to get some press to jump start his flailing presidential ambitions.
I do, however, take exception with calling Mike Johnson a tool. No one I know has fought for religious liberty and freedom more than Mike. He has been on the forefront of religious battles all across this nation. If you aren’t familiar with his background then research it. He is quite impressive. He has genuine concern for the way religion is being abused across this nation. The only people that don’t have rights now are Christians. It’s time to take a stand. Also…Mike would laugh out loud at the idea of him being a Grover Norquist puppet. The relationship just isn’t there.
People need to stand on their beliefs. Whether you agree or not, let’s put ideas out there and debate them. If they fail to pass, so be it.
Dear real Bob, please specifically detail what’s rights Christians don’t have. Thank you.
We are evangelical Christians midway through our sixth decade on this earth, and my spouse and I have not been discriminated against in any way as Christians. Nor have any rights been denied or abridged. We are as free to worship and practice our faith today as when we wore younger people’s clothes. Will someone PLEASE tell me which rights I don’t have anymore?
The idea that there actually are “religious battles” going on this country right now and/or that American Christians are having their rights trampled is really ludicrous and really and truly makes a mockery of the times throughout history when people actually were arrested, tortured, had their land taken away, were beheaded or fire-bombed and so on merely on account of being Protestant or Catholic or Jewish or whatever as well as the instances of wars, etc. still going on. The pogroms in czarist Russia was something that was for real. The Nazi Holocaust was something that was for real. The Spanish Inquisition was something that was for real. Christians supposedly being victims right now in the U.S. is not.
I have heard that Johnson is sincere in his beliefs, is a nice person, and that he is not a hater of anybody. He offered legislation that reflected his beliefs and his bill was resoundingly rejected. Fair enough.
In order to remain in the spotlight, Governor Jindal immediately issued an executive order that has little if any real effect since executive orders cannot supersede existing law. While Mr. Johnson’s motivation may have been pure, it is difficult to make the same argument for Governor Jindal’s unless self-aggrandizement is considered a pure motive.
“Fight for religious liberty”, “forefront of religious battles”, “only people without rights are Christians”. What ludicrous statements these are. A quick check of your local phone book will reveal a multitude of religions are available, as was the intent of the U.S. Constitution, and to declare the largest of these religions as being under any type of duress, except internally, is a both a joke and a sham. You want a religion under attack look up the fate of Buddhist monks in Tibet where hundred of thousands have been killed or imprisoned in incredibly harsh conditions after China invaded them in 1951 while the U.S. and other first world sat on their hands and offered no reply for their pleas for help. These violent repression a continue as we speak. This is what a religious attack looks like; not whatever battle you have going on in your head. A belief is not a fact but everything I listed above is and only now do we realize that China now controls the headwaters of the five major river systems in Asia since invading Tibet and that implication is enormous as fresh water supplies are depleting at alarming rates. I too am a “real” Bob so we have this in common along with a disdain for our absentee governor. 😊
Since TRB has not told us what rights are being denied to Christians in the U.S. and what religious warfare is going on here, thought I’d post two of today’s headlines to show what persecution and loss of religious liberty look like:
ISIS executes 262, as it takes ancient Syrian city of Palmyra
Boko Haram militants raid Nigerian village, hack 10 to death
Are we gonna have fewer hurricanes now? How about today? The weather is pretty nasty where I am.
Exactly Earthmother. ” Fought .. forefront religious .. battles” etc. what does this mean? Are we in the middle- east? Is it possible that actually listing the so called abridged rights and alleged oppression of Christians in the US. will detail a litany of silly, imagined affronts that display a victimization mentality? Who are the real oppressors? Is progress in mass media and encyclopedias at everyone’s fingertips with an internet connection a threat? Is sowing hatred and suspicion a profit driven agenda? Unquestionably. Are the resulting bigotry and paranoia coping mechanisms of scared folks? Obviously. How about my right not to have my taxes support the imbecilic ramblings and ( fill in the phobia) of an embarrassing caricature of an ignorant idiot that makes duck whistles?
For sure. Representative Johnson obviously sincerely believes the rights of Christians are being abridged. Like you, Earthmother, and me, 83% of the committee members voting on his bill did not agree. He had a right to make his argument. 83% of those in a position to vote on it rejected it. Whether debating it was a waste of time is arguable, but, in this case the legislative process worked as it was intended to.
Newcomer to LA legislators Mike Johnson is fighting for so- called religious wars in the US. However,he has failed to convince LA citizens of the critical urgency and the the US Congress for that matter of the existence of religious wars. Where are these wars in the US being fought specifically? I would like for Mr. Johnson to make his case and inform the entire country of the urgency because if true then we should know.
Like Great Britain wanted to know from Jindal when he traveled to London to self-promote. Jindal claimed Sharia laws existed right under the noses of the folks in Great Britain. Too bad Jindal wasn’t informed by his team that Fox News retracted the claims made of existing Sharia law were false and Fox reporters were splashed across the air waves stating the reports were false.
Geez…, how humiliating was that moment for him.
NBC news and NY Times and numerous news media reported on the attack on Christian students in Nairobi, Kenya. According to one world media report there were 150 students separated into groups of Christians and Muslims by attackers belonging to a Somali militant group around 4 to 10 terrorist attackers. ” militants roved from dorm to dorm separating Christian from Muslim students and killing the Christians, the authorities said.” (NY Times)
By the time the Kenyon commandos arrived at the scene, 147 people were dead. That was reported on April 2, 2015. A terrible tragedy of an ongoing war in many areas of the world.
However, not in one of those reports did a single reporter mention one of those religious wars with LGBT militants. Cannot even find the words gay or homosexual or heterosexual in one of those articles. Please know I only looked up mostly reliable mainstream media reports. Now the point is this, are Jindal and Johnson in any way shape or form talking about real religious wars or the made up ones they would have us believe? Do they even care of the destruction they are causing LA businesses both small and large by their claims of ,” protecting our religious freedom?”
There are real religious wars going on around the world. It angers me that politicians can be so insensitive to make up catastrophes in the US when others in the world live in it everyday. The catastrophe here is Jindal and his conduit Johnson.
No rights? Well apparently some have the rights to molest children! Did he do this in the name of the Lord? And of course this guy was a member of the F.R.C. Family Research Council, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled as a hate group.
https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/celeb-news/josh-duggar-named-in-underage-sex-abuse-scandal–report-195532368.html
And please…no cr@p about his youthful age.
To all Fellow Commenters on this post (except The Real Bob – you need to study history and all of the replies to your comment, you are sooo off base) – all of your remarks are incredibly thoughtful, reasoned and intelligent. You prove that Louisiana has citizens who are not ignorant caricatures, stereotyped swamp folk, Old Testament patriarchs or piyush jindal. It’s past time for our educated, 21st century-thinking people to prove that Louisiana has a place in the modern world. We cherish our unique culture and Southern manners, but the time has come for us to change world’s perception that Louisiana is a not-so-charming backwater and bastion of 19th century plantation mentality.
earthmother, I don’t think there are enough of us to drown out the ones who make us look like such stereotypes. They just have a larger platform to speak from.
http://news.yahoo.com/bobby-jindals-marriage-conscience-order-actually-101700857.html;_ylt=A0LEVrh7Gl9V96YAYcEPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByMjB0aG5zBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzYw–
A really good article.
Thanks for the link Stephen.
Oh and have y’all seen lil booby’s latest tweet?
I wonder what Jidnal’s parents, who are Hindu and presumably strict vegetarians, think about their son who can’t wait for hunting season?
Veritas, I doubt he’ll be shooting much except for himself in the foot, but yes I do wonder if they’ve said anything.
The tweet and photo of jindal with gun are great entertainment when you read the comments. And the photo! I know all my menfolk go huntin’ and shopping in too-big black suits, white dress shirt and tie. And the expression – if that were my spouse, I’d be jealous.
(where ARE his pr handlers? If they had any sense or experience they would have staged that differently. Glad to know they are still third rate.)
earthmother some of the comments had me in stitches.
I know all my menfolk go huntin’ and shopping in too-big black suits, white dress shirt and tie
Didn’t they try him in camo once before? I can only believe it would be a disaster. LOL!
Oh my Lord, they did try it. That’s almost as bad as Mike Dukakis in the tank.
Uh-oh…I’m in comment jail.
Fredster – some of the tweet comments are not-ready-for-prime-time (or LA Voice) but they really get the point across. I couldn’t stop LOL.
As for the camo outfits, the jindal family 2014 Christmas card featured the five of them dressed in camo, sitting in a truck. Uh huh. I know that’s part of their culture, where they live somewhere in an alternate universe. And as my sweet spouse just noted, camo is for hunting and killing things – a great message on the birthday of the Prince of Peace.
earthmother: Yes I know about the comments and being “not ready”, but as far as I know with twitter, you can’t edit them if you are going to embed the tweet or put a link to it, you have to take it as is. It was such a pathetic visual I just had to link it here.
Great comment by your husband too!
As usual, Melinda Deslatte gets it:
http://theadvocate.com/news/opinion/12444003-123/louisiana-spotlight-bill-rejection-gives
Just another in a series of publicity stunts aimed at keeping himself in the news.
Lamar White also always gets it right: