NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — After signing the petition to recall New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and later becoming involved in lowering the threshold of signatures needed to trigger the election, advocates are calling for the recusal of a local judge.
A lawsuit filed by nonprofit Voice of the Experience (“VOTE”) has filed a lawsuit, calling for Judge Jennifer Medley to be excused from the case.
Earlier this month, Medley approved a settlement between recall organizers, the Secretary of State’s Office, and the Registrar of Voters that roughly 25,000 Orleans Parish voters originally listed as active would be listed as inactive. That meant that the number of signatures needed for the recall election would change as it’s based on the number of active voters.
It was only after the settlement was reached did we find out that the judge had signed the recall petition. In an interview last week, our WGNO legal analyst Cliff Cardone told us that Medley not excusing herself from the case could make things messy. We reached out to the judge, who would not make a comment at the time.
Now, since a motion has been filed for her recusal, the judge is moving to have the state Supreme Court get involved. Take a look at the document signed by Medley in the reader below.
Despite claiming her work in the case is unbiased, Medley has asked the state for an unaffiliated judge to determine whether she should be excused from the case due to a potential conflict of interest.
Cardone said Friday it was likely the Supreme Court would take her off the case.
We reached out to Voice of the Experienced, who declined to comment on the legal action.
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