NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A Louisiana Supreme Court justice sued Thursday to block her colleagues from debating and voting on whether she is legally entitled to become the court's next chief justice, setting the stage for a racially-tinged power struggle inside the state's highest court.
Justice Bernette Johnson's federal lawsuit argues she is next in line for the job under the terms of the state constitution because she qualifies as the court's longest-serving justice.
Justice Jeffrey Victory of Shreveport also has staked a claim that distinction and the right to succeed Chief Justice Catherine "Kitty" Kimball, who retires next year.
If Johnson prevails, the New Orleans resident would be the court's first black chief justice. Civil rights leaders have been rallying support for her. Victory and his attorney have declined to publicly comment on the simmering debate.
The question of which justice deserves to succeed Kimball hinges on whether Johnson's first few years on the court count toward her seniority. Johnson technically filled a seat on a state appeals court when voters elected her in 1994, but she was assigned to serve on the Supreme Court on a full-time basis under the terms of a federal consent decree.
The settlement, which created an eighth Supreme Court district centered in New Orleans, resolved a lawsuit that claimed the system for electing justices diluted black voting strength and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Johnson filled the eighth seat until the court reverted back to seven districts in 2000, when she was elected again.
Johnson's lawsuit says that the eighth seat that she filled "was to be an absolute equal to the other seven.
"The eighth justice was entitled to be treated in exactly the same way as the other seven and was a full justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court just like the other seven in all ways," it says.
Victory joined the court in 1995, a year after Johnson, but his supporters argue the clock on Johnson's seniority didn't start running until 2000.
Last month, Kimball set a July 31 deadline for the justices to weigh in with briefs on which colleague is the "oldest in point of service" under the terms of the state constitution.
Three appellate judges were picked to help decide the matter because Johnson, Victory and Justice Jeannette Knoll have been recused. Knoll joined the court in 1997, which could make her the second-most senior justice ahead of Johnson if Victory's argument prevails.
Kimball, who became the court's first female chief justice in 2009, suffered a stroke the following year and had to temporarily abandon many of her judicial duties. She returned to the bench in late 2010 but announced her retirement in April 2012. Her successor, whomever that may be, is scheduled to be sworn in on Feb. 1, 2013.
Johnson was re-elected to another 10-year term in 2010. Victory is up for re-election in 2014.
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