Julie O”Donoghue LA Illuminator
Gov. Jeff Landry can move forward with his strategy to cut public school operations funding to provide another round of teacher pay stipends this year after a Baton Rouge judge threw out an order Monday that was preventing the plan from moving forward.
Judge Richard “Chip” Moore of the 19th Judicial District Court lifted a temporary restraining order blocking Landry’s education funding strategy. It potentially ends a lawsuit three education advocates brought to challenge the governor’s executive order that put his stipend plan in motion.
The judge said Baker Donelson, the law firm representing the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, could not be involved with the case without Landry’s permission because it also represents the governor and the state in federal litigation over foster care.
“It all starts with him,” Moore said, referring to the governor.
State Deputy Solicitor General Zack Faircloth accused Baker Donelson of “sandbagging” the governor by agreeing to take the education funding case without consulting Landry.
Faircloth’s boss, Attorney General Liz Murrill, praised Moore’s ruling and said her office has terminated its contracts with Baker Donelson.
“A law firm cannot represent the Governor in one courtroom and sue him in another without proper consent,” Murrill said in a written statement.
Murrill also threatened to file “a bar complaint,” presumably with the Louisiana Bar Association, related to Baker Donelson’s role in the lawsuit. The attorney general’s warning, which she wrote in an email she sent to the firm’s general counsel earlier this month, was among the filings for the case.
A public relations manager for the law firm did not respond to a phone call and email for comment sent to her Monday evening. The three attorneys who represented the plaintiffs in court declined to comment on the allegations of professional misconduct before Monday’s court hearing .
The plaintiffs in the case former school superintendent Michael Faulk, former state school board member Belinda Davis and current Orleans Parish School Board member Katherine Baudouin.
The judge did not address whether Landry has the constitutional authority to cut K-12 schools funding for a teacher pay stipend through an executive order. The plaintiffs had argued the governor was overextending his powers by doing so.
Greg Beuermann, a spokesman for the plaintiffs, said they might consider further legal action, such as another lawsuit with new legal representation. But that would likely have to be done before Wednesday, when Landry’s plan for cutting school funding takes effect, Beuermann said.
Documents the plaintiffs filed show that Baker Donelson started advising “a client” about a potential lawsuit over Landry’s education funding plan on the same day Landry’s executive order was released. Faircloth said the firm didn’t tell the governor they would be involved in the lawsuit until two weeks later on June 17.
Barbara Irwin, an outside attorney representing Baker Donelson, argued the firm’s work with the plaintiffs was permitted under a waiver Landry signed in 2023 when he was attorney general before Murrill. It allows the firm to take on cases challenging the state even while handling the child welfare litigation, she said.
Baker Donelson currently represents clients in 50 other cases against the state, and the attorney general’s office has never raised concern over a potential conflict of interest in any other matter, Irwin said.
“At no point during this extensive course of dealing — spanning multiple years and a change of administration — did the State challenge Baker Donelson’s ability to be adverse to the State,” she wrote in a legal brief filed last week.
In court Monday, Faircloth said the education funding case is different from the others because it involves “personal accusations launched at the governor.”
The judge sided with Faircloth, saying that the waiver Landry signed for Baker Donelson as attorney general did not carry over to his role as governor, which he started in January 2024.
Once the judge ruled Baker Donelson’s representation out of order, another attorney seated behind the plaintiffs’ bench stood up and tried to step in as substitute legal counsel. Moore immediately scuttled that attempt. The attorney declined to give reporters his name before leaving the courtroom.
Landry has been pushing for his teacher stipend plan in order to avoid a potentially unpopular teacher pay cut.
The governor and state lawmakers finalized a state budget plan in late May that didn’t include money to cover $2,000 stipends for teachers and $1,000 for select school staff for the 2026-27 school year. Landry and legislators initially hoped voters would agree to a constitutional amendment to drain public education trust funds to free up money for a permanent salary increases to replace the temporary stipends that have been paid out the past three years. But voters have rejected such proposals for two years, most recently in the May 16 election.
Landry issued an executive order June 2 asking state lawmakers to pull $168 million from K-12 schools’ general operations funding and use it to pay for a fourth year of stipends. Legislators overwhelmingly approved Landry’s plan last week over the objections of several superintendents, school board members and the state’s largest teachers union. They said moving operational funding into pay stipends would force schools to cut education programs and, in some districts, lay off teachers and other employees.
If Landry’s plan goes into place, the state will still have reduced state funding for public education and education pay by at least $198 million from last year. That’s the amount of money that was used for the teacher and school staff stipends in three previous budget cycles.
