Preceded by Catherine D. Kimball Role Lawyer Residence New Orleans, Louisiana Education Spelman College | Occupation Attorney, Judge Political party Democratic Party Name Bernette Johnson | |
Preceded by New position under consent decree Succeeded by Elevated to Chief Justice (remains the Place 7 justice) Alma mater Spelman College
Louisiana State University Law Center | ||
Investiture of chief justice bernette joshua johnson
Bernette Joshua Johnson (born June 1943) is a Democratic lawyer from New Orleans, Louisiana, who has served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court since 2013. She succeeded Catherine D. Kimball in the position of chief justice. In 2017, Johnson is the only Democrat serving on the state Supreme Court, which also consists of four Republicans and two Independents.
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Career
When Associate Justice Johnson fell in line to become chief justice in 2013, Judge Jeffrey P. Victory, a Republican from Shreveport, also sought the position but has since retired from the court. However, Johnson claimed the right to succeed Kimball under the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, which directs that the longest-serving associate justice becomes chief justice should a vacancy occur prior to the next regular election. In 1984, Johnson was elected to the Orleans Parish Civil District Court. In 1994, she was elected chief judge of that court. She was shortly thereafter appointed to the Supreme Court under a federal consent decree that augmented the number of justices from six to seven. Justice Victory had maintained that he was the legitimate successor because he was elected to the Supreme Court on November 8, 1994 while he had previously been a judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeal for four years. Because Johnson's tenure on the Supreme Court preceded that of Victory by less than three months, Justice Victory maintained that he was the legitimate successor as chief justice because he was elected to the Supreme Court on November 8, 1994 while he had previously been serving as a circuit court judge for nearly four years. Johnson had run unsuccessfully for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 1, 1994. She was appointed a few weeks after that October election to the Supreme Court directly from the civil district court of Orleans Parish on which she would otherwise have continued serving.
United States District Judge Susie Morgan ruled in September 2012 that Johnson had the greater seniority under the state constitution, but she did not specifically require the state Supreme Court to designate her as chief justice. In October 2012, the state Supreme Court declared that Johnson would succeed Kimball because the start of Johnson's tenure predates that of Victory even though she had not been elected specifically to the Supreme Court when she first began to serve in the chamber.
Johnson is the first African-American woman to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court as both associate justice and chief justice. Justice Victory subsequently retired from the Supreme Court on December 31, 2014, and was succeeded by another Republican, Scott Crichton, a former Louisiana 1st District Court judge from Shreveport.