Running for Office: La. Supreme Court Dist. 5
A 15-year member of the state’s 1st Circuit Court of Appeal in Baton Rouge is among eight candidates for the District 5 seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Circuit Judge John Michael Guidry, D-Baton Rouge, also has served as a state senator, state representative and member of both the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission and Greater Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport Commission.
Guidry is seeking the unexpired Supreme Court seat occupied by Chief Justice Kitty Kimball, who has announced she will retire in January. Kimball, the first woman to serve as the court’s chief justice, will have completed four years of the 10-year term to which she was elected in 2008.
“I have spent the last 15 years serving this community as a fair, honest and competent judge, who has maintained his integrity while adhering to the principle that all men and women stand equally before the bar of justice,” Guidry said in a statement. “I believe that no man is above the law and that my job is to apply the constitution and laws without fear or favor.”
Guidry is a 1983 graduate of LSU, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. He graduated cum laude from the Southern University Law Center in 1987. In addition to his judicial duties, Guidry serves as an adjunct professor at both Southern’s law center and its Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy.
In 2010, Guidry was inducted as a member of the Southern University Law Center Hall of Fame.
He is a member of the governing board of the Louisiana Judicial College, which provides instructions for the state’s judiciary. He also serves as board secretary.
Voters who elect the District 5 member of Louisiana’s highest court reside in the parishes of East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, Iberville, Ascension and Livingston.
Republican candidates include three other members of the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal — Walker resident Jeff Hughes and Baton Rouge residents Toni Manning Higginbotham and Jewel E. “Duke” Welch.
Other Republicans seeking the final six years of Kimball’s Supreme Court term are judges with the 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge, Timothy E. “Tim” Kelley and William “Bill” Morvant.
The only other Democrat in the race is longtime Baton Rouge trial attorney Mary Olive Pierson.
Baton Rouge lawyer Jeffry Lamonte Sanford, no party, also wants Kimball’s unexpired Supreme Court post.
Voters seeking more information about Guidry can visit his website at http://www.judgejohnguidry.com.