Bernette Joshua Johnson

Bernette Joshua Johnson (born June 1943)^[1] is an African-American Democrat lawyer from her native New Orleans, Louisiana, who has been since 2013 the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court.^[2] She succeeded another woman, Catherine D. Kimball of Ventress in Pointe Coupee Parish, who retired for health reasons.

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. 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.^[3] 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.^[4]

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.^[5]

Johnson is the first African-American woman to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court as both associate justice and chief justice.^[6] 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.

References