ADVOCATE THE
T H E A D V O C AT E.C O M
Judge’s role in tax law raises ethics questions
BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
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M o n d ay, M a r c h 2, 2026
$2.00X
New assaults launched; Iran vows revenge 3 U.s. military members killed in attacks, 5 injured
La. high court justice voted on challenge to measure he helped write BY JOHN SIMERMAN
staff writer
Louisiana Supreme Court Justice Cade Cole was barely a week into the job last March when he weighed in on a subject he knows well: taxes. The high court was reviewing a challenge to a ballot measure that Gov. Jeff Landry pushed to revamp the state tax code. Early voting was underway. Cole, a former state tax judge, helped kill the challenge in a 4-3 ruling. “If the ballot language were inaccurate this Court would act to protect the voters,” he wrote in a concurring opinion. “That is not the case here.” Cole was hardly fresh to the topic. Emails show he helped draft the law behind the contested ballot measure, called Amendment 2, which tanked at the polls. Months before his swearing-in, Cole sent detailed revisions of Amendment 2 to top officials at the DepartCole ment of Revenue, in a pair of November 2024 messages. The Times-Picayune | The Advocate received them through a public records request. Some of the proposed changes made it into the complicated ballot initiative, which Louisiana voters rejected less than two weeks later by a nearly 2-1 margin. It was one of four constitutional amendments that failed last March. Veterans on judicial ethics say Cole should have recused himself from the case, or at least should have alerted the parties. There is no evidence in the court record that Cole did so, or that he was subject to any attempt to have him step off the case. The justices meet in private when they decide on whether to take up a case and when they rule. Cole declined an interview request through the court and declined to respond to written questions about his vote or his role in shaping Amendment 2. “The Supreme Court’s opinions speak for themselves, and justices or staff cannot comment on court rulings,” said Supreme Court spokesperson Trina Vincent in a statement. Under state law, a judge must recuse
ä see QUESTIONS, page 6A
Brown pelicans land on the Terrebonne Houma Navigation Canal Bird Island near Cocodrie on Tuesday. The revitalization of the remote island restores a key nesting area for scores of waterbirds, including Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican. sTAFF PHoTo By BRETT DUKE
WEATHER HIGH 79 LOW 61 PAGE 12A
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By VAHID sALEMI
smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, on sunday. The U.s. and Israel are pounding targets across Iran, dropping massive bombs on the country’s ballistic missile facilities and wiping out warships as part of an intensifying military campaign that accompanied the killing of supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. ä FBI probes possible link of deadly Austin shooting to Iran operation. PAGE 2A
BY JON GAMBRELL, MELANIE LIDMAN, JOSH BOAK and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The U.S. and Israel pounded targets across Iran on Sunday, dropping massive bombs on the country’s ballistic missile sites and wiping out warships as part of an intensifying military campaign following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Blasts rattled windows across the country and sent plumes of smoke high into the sky above Tehran. More than 200 people have been killed since the start of the strikes that killed Khamenei and other senior leaders, Iranian leaders have said. Iran vowed revenge, firing missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states in a counteroffensive that the U.S. military said resulted in the deaths of three service members — the first known American casualties from the conflict. Five others were seriously wounded. Israeli rescue services said strikes had hit several locations, including Jerusalem and a syna-
ä At least 22 people
killed in Pakistan protests. PAGE 2A
ä Iran strikes spark
calls for peace, flashes of anger. PAGE 3A
AssoCIATED PREss PHoTo By JosE LUIs MAGANA
People protesting against the Islamic republic celebrate the killing of Iran’s supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as they rally outside the White House in Washington on saturday. gogue in the central town of Beit Shemesh, where nine people were killed and 28 wounded, bringing the overall death toll in the country to 11. Eleven people were still missing after the strike, police said. But the attacks on Iran showed no signs of relenting as the U.S.
and Israel took aim at key military, political and intelligence targets in what appeared to be a widening war that carried the potential for a prolonged conflict that could envelop the Middle East and destabilize it.
ä see IRAN, page 4A
ä Oil prices rise sharply in market trading after strikes.
PAGE 3A
ä Stranded travelers scramble to make new connections after attack. PAGE 3A ä Some fear war will slow momentum of Gaza ceasefire.
PAGE 4A
‘Every little bit helps’
a Cocodrie marina in Terrebonne Remote island’s Parish on a cool morning last week, a group of scientists and engineers revitalization restores surveyed the now-completed restoration project and explained its key nesting area dual importance. for waterbirds The island may be unassuming
BY JOSIE ABUGOV
staff writer
It would not have been long before the small island off Louisiana’s coast washed away completely, joining a list of other locations that have disappeared under the tides. Instead, it has been revived after years of work, and the state bird will be among the primary beneficiaries. After a 20-minute boat ride from
Classified .....................6C Deaths .........................9A Nation-World ................2A Comics-Puzzles .....3C-5C Living............................1C opinion .....................10A Commentary .............11A Metro ...........................8A sports ..........................1B
— mostly hay bales, rock dikes and sparse vegetation — but its revitalization restores a key nesting area for scores of waterbirds, including the brown pelican, Louisiana’s state bird. Part of the Terrebonne Barrier Islands, it also plays a modest role in safeguarding south Louisiana communities from storm surge. “Every little bit helps,” said Renee Bennett, who is overseeing the
ä see ISLAND, page 6A
101sT yEAR, No. 245