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T u e s d ay, a p r i l 15, 2025
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2025 LEGISLATURE
Landry focuses on auto insurance Governor seeks middle ground but faces legislative opposition BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
Gov. Jeff Landry on Monday pinned the blame for Louisiana’s car insurance crisis on both trial lawyers and insurance companies, saying “a dark cloud continues to linger in the halls of this Capitol” over the issue. But as Landry opened the 2025 regular legislative session, it was not clear that the 144 House and Senate members sitting in front of him agree with his approach. Landry was animated as he gave an unusually long 63-minute speech, pounding the podium and jabbing his finger for emphasis. “Year after year after year, we come here to argue about excessive insurance rates,” Landry told lawmakers. “Year after year, people from both sides show up to gaslight us.” But while legislators applauded him while seated from time to time, the two biggest standing ovations he received came from his senior legislative staff and Cabinet seated in one corner of the House chamber. A few House Democrats stood to applaud at one point when Landry said a person’s credit score shouldn’t influence their insurance rates. Landry faces opposition from many Republican House members, led by a group of 15 freshmen. They are pushing for changes that would tilt car insurance laws against trial lawyers and their clients in ways that Landry opposes. That is putting Landry at odds with a key part of his political base. The House leadership is acting quickly on those bills by taking up a batch of them in the Civil Law and Procedure Committee on Tuesday and the Insurance Committee on Wednesday. “We are committed to staying focused on our goal,” Speaker Pro Tem Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, said in an interview. He predicted that the two committees would pass most of the bills on those two days and that the full House would take them up next week. Besides the House conservatives, Landry also faces opposition from Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple on some measures that favor trial lawyers.
ä See LANDRY, page 4A
Gov. Jeff Landry addresses the Legislature on the opening day of the 2025 session on Monday.
Bill would shorten time to executions
STAFF PHOTOS By HILARy SCHEINUK
Teacher pay among top education issues
Legislation may overhaul post-conviction process
Bills filed include funding, TOPS, exams
BY MEGHAN FRIEDMANN
Staff writer
As the state resumes executions of death row prisoners, a bill in the Legislature aims to cut back on the time people convicted of crimes can spend trying to reduce or overturn their sentences, and it would vest more power over the process with the Attorney General’s Office. The move also comes seven months after state lawmakers took action against Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams over deals he made through the post-conviction relief process to reduce the sentences of long-serving inmates. Attorney General Liz Murrill, a conservative Republican with a staunch pro-death penalty stance, says House Bill 572 would prevent victims from waiting decades to see justice done. She has long
BY ELYSE CARMOSINO Staff writer
Speaker of the House Phillip DeVillier, R-Eunice, gavels in on the opening day of the legislative session on Monday at the State ä See EXECUTIONS, page 4A Capitol.
As Louisiana’s next legislative session started Monday, education bills already filed by lawmakers ran the gamut from changing how schools are funded to making the ACT a graduation requirement instead of end-of-course exams and overhauling eligibility requirements for Taylor Opportunity Program for Students college scholarships. Perhaps the most controversial education issue on the table is teacher pay.
ä See EDUCATION, page 3A
Louisiana coastal damage cases mount against oil industry
the 40 other lawsuits that attorney United States, but globally,” said the appeals process will comfight. Landmark verdict bigger After a monthlong trial in John Carmouche has filed on be- Michael Gerrard, the founder mence. And I think settlement disPlaquemines Parish that ended half of coastal parof the Sabin Center for Climate cussions will probably commence, found company liable earlier this month, a jury found ishes, all seeking Change Law at Columbia Univer- too.” for $745 million Since 2013, Carmouche has led Chevron liable for $745 million in damages from oil sity in New York. “In addition to
BY ALEX LUBBEN Staff writer
A landmark verdict holding the oil industry responsible for Louisiana coastal damage was more than a decade in the making. It may only be the beginning of a much
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damages, which, by law, must be used to restore coastal wetlands. The company immediately promised to appeal, a stance that Chevron has emphasized in the days since the trial ended. Perhaps more important than the outcome of this case, however, is the fact that it sets a precedent for
companies to restore areas along Louisiana’s eroding coastline. “This is one of the largest ver- Carmouche dicts ever won by a local government for environmental damage — not only in the
its effect on the numerous other similar lawsuits pending in Louisiana, it may inspire similar lawsuits in this country and around the world.” “It’s not the end of anything,” noted Mark Davis, director of the Tulane Center on Environmental Law. “It’s almost inevitable that
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the charge on 42 lawsuits, each claiming that oil and gas companies polluted areas of the coast and contributed to Louisiana’s land loss crisis. Across the state, more than 2,000 square miles of land has washed away over the
ä See CASES, page 3A
100TH yEAR, NO. 289