BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The chairman of the Louisiana Board of Ethics says Louisiana's ethics system has been "crippled" as a result of legal changes made during Gov. Bobby Jindal's 2008 special session on ethics.
Frank Simoneaux said the main culprit is a law that moved judicial power from the Ethics Board to administrative law judges, called ALJs. The ALJs are hired by an appointee of the governor.
The law stemmed from complaints from legislators and some local officials that the Ethics Board was violating due process protections sitting as both prosecutor and judge.
Simoneaux said he agrees that there should be a division of powers between prosecutorial and judicial functions. But, he says law goes about it in the wrong way.
Simoneaux told the Press Club of Baton Rouge Monday that the issue needs to be publicly debated.
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