Could a Louisiana city council member also work as a state district judge's law clerk?

Plain-English summary

A Kaplan city councilman asked if he could keep his local elected seat while working as a law clerk for a judge of Louisiana's Fifteenth Judicial District Court. In Opinion 03-0047, the Attorney General said he could not hold both positions. The opinion treated district-court employment as employment in the state judicial branch and applied the state ban on combining local elective office with state employment.

The AG concluded that the councilman would have to relinquish one of the two positions. The letter's footnotes quoted the statute defining the judicial branch to include district courts and the provision governing employment held alongside local elective office.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2003. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

What the opinion meant at issuance

Council members considering court employment

On the positions presented, the opinion found a dual-officeholding violation. Its reason was that the proposed district-court law-clerk job counted as state-government employment while the council seat was a local elective office.

District courts

The opinion used the judicial-branch definition quoted in the source, which expressly included employees of district courts. It did not address a job with a court excluded from that definition.

Common questions

Q: Could the Kaplan councilman keep his seat if hired as the district judge's law clerk?
A: No. The AG said the two roles could not be held together and that he would have to relinquish one.

Q: Why did a district-court law clerk count as a state employee?
A: The opinion quoted the statutory definition of the state judicial branch, which included district courts and their employees.

Background and statutory framework

The AG applied Louisiana's Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Laws. The source quoted R.S. 42:63(D) for the prohibition and R.S. 42:62(8) for the judicial-branch definition. The OCR-damaged first-page date is left blank rather than guessed.

Citations and references

Authorities in the opinion: R.S. 42:63(D) and R.S. 42:62(8).

Source

• Landing page: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.ag.state.la.us/Opinion/Download/03-0047

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain — the linked PDF is authoritative.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
One American Place
301 Ma~n Street, Suite 600
CIVIL DIVISION
P O Box 94005
BATON ROUGE
TEL (225/ 342-7013
RICHARD P. IEYOUB
FAX: (225) 342-2090
70804-9005
ATTORNEY GENERAL
FEB 2’! 2003
OPINION 03-0047

   Mr. Jonathon Perry                                        78       Officers Dual Officeholding

R.S. 42:63(D); R.S. 42:62(8); R.S. 42:61 et seq.
905 N. Wilson
A law clerk for the district court is employed by the judicial
Kaplan, LA 70548
branch of state government and is thus prohibited from
concurrently holding local elective office.
Dear Mr. Perry:

You advise that you currently hold local elective office as councilman for the City of Kaplan. You ask if you may retain your elective office if you are employed as a law clerk by Judge Durwood Conque of the Fifteenth Judicial District Court.

Unfortunately, our state Dual Officeholding and Dual Employment Laws, R.S. 42:61 et seq., prohibit you from the concurrent holding of these positions. R.S. 42:63(D7 prohibits one from holding local elective office and employment in the government of the state. R.S. 42:62(8)2 defines the judicial branch of state government to include district courts. You will have to relinquish one of the positions to avoid a dual-officeholding violation.

Very truly yours,

RICHARD P. IEYOUB

A~TTNEY GENERAL

BY:

ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL
KLK:ams

1
R.S. 42:63(D) states:
D. No person holding an elective office in a political subdivision of this state shall at the same time hold another elective office or full-time appointive office in the government of this state or in the government of a political subdivision thereof. No such person shall hold at the same time employment in the government of this state or in the same political subdivision in which he holds an elective office. In addition no sheriff, assessor, or clerk of court shall hold any office or employment under a parish govermng authority or school board, nor shall any member of any parish governing authority or school board hold any office or employment with any sheriff, assessor, or clerk of court.
(Emphasis added).

2 R.S. 42:62(8) states:
(8) ~he judicial branch of state government includes all judges, employees, and agents of tl~e supreme court, the judicial administrator, courts of appear, district courts, including the civil and criminal district courts of Orleans Parish, parish courts, city courts, juvenile and family courts, and any other judicial offices and instrumentalities of the state, but does not include judges or employees of courts not enumerated in this Paragraph. (Emphasis added).