r/pics • u/guardian • 2h ago
Politics [OC] Calvin Duncan, whose court clerk election victory was abolished, poses in New Orleans
•
u/CryingEagle626 2h ago
As a native of Louisiana I think this story needs to be shared to every corner of the state. We the people hold the power to stop these injustices. One way or another.
•
u/guardian 2h ago
Photos by Craig Mulcahy/The Guardian in New Orleans, Louisiana
Hi r/pics, this is Jake from the Guardian US. We wanted to share some photos from this story that we published today about Calvin Duncan, a man who studied law in prison to free himself and won his Louisiana court clerk race in a landslide. However three hours into his tenure, the role was abolished in an act of ‘white supremacy.’
From our story 'He won office in Louisiana after a murder exoneration. Maga wouldn’t let the election stand' by Oliver Laughland:
The grand old criminal courthouse in New Orleans, encased by towering neoclassical columns, is a building that has altered the course of Calvin Duncan’s life at many junctures. First, in 1985, when he was sentenced to life without parole for a murder he did not commit. Then, over decades, as he fought to access his vital case records and was denied by judges the chance to relitigate his case.
Later, in January 2011, he appeared here and accepted a deal that finally secured his freedom.
And then, in April of this year, on the steps outside, he placed his hand on a Bible and swore an oath that would elevate him to elected office, having won the race to become the court’s clerk – its chief administrative officer.
At his inauguration Duncan said he would prevent the numerous injustices he faced from within these walls from ever happening again. He was dressed in a tan suit and tinted glasses, beaming as a throng of supporters chanted his name. “I have always considered myself as a protector of the constitution,” he said, his hands clasped. It was a moment of deep, resonant catharsis.
Duncan, now 64, left school with a ninth-grade education, but taught himself the law while in prison. He had become one of the country’s most prolific jailhouse lawyers, helping to secure the release of hundreds of people from within the system. Freely elected in the state with the highest rate of incarceration in the US, he had pledged to help reform it.
But this is Louisiana, where a hard-right Republican party, empowered by the second presidency of Donald Trump, holds significant control amid faltering and divided political opposition. A few months after Duncan’s victory in November 2025, the state found another way to knock him down. It moved to eliminate his office entirely, and disenfranchise the thousands of New Orleanians who had just voted him in.
A largely obscure, down-ballot local election transformed into a metaphor for this era of competitive authoritarianism, where the desire for power at all costs seemingly snuffs out even the most exceptional and historic achievements.
Duncan held office for only three hours before a court cleared the way for a hastily passed law that abolished his position.
“Everything I was believing in had been crushed,” he recalls, as we sit in a neatly kept living room at his modest home in the city’s seventh ward, a month after it happened. “I believed in the democratic process. I was out there saying ‘times have changed,’ but this [running for office] has told me ain’t nothing changed. It’s still Reconstruction. They will take your seat just like they did during Reconstruction.”
•
u/Militantpoet 2h ago
Republicans don't want democracy. Theyre not interested in governing with mutual respect and good-faith arguments. They just want to rule over the rest of us.
•
u/defwad7 2h ago
Regressives, let's call them what they are.
•
•
u/Militantpoet 2h ago
Thanks, but I think fascist accurately describes them just fine. They will cry about the label, but its what they are based on their behavior.
•
•
u/hrminer92 5m ago
> He had become one of the country’s most prolific jailhouse lawyers, helping to secure the release of hundreds of people from within the system. Freely elected in the state with the highest rate of incarceration in the US, he had pledged to help reform it.
The political donors who own those prisons don’t like reform that costs them money.
•
u/bayoublacksmith 1h ago
Jeff Landry is currently giving Bobby Jindal quite the challenge as the worst Louisiana governor in the 21st century. The man is basically Bobby Boucher in a suit, but without any of the kindness or morality.
•
u/Green-Collection-968 2h ago
Can we arrest them all... now? Or do we wait until they start throwing us all into camps?
•
•
u/mechapoitier 2h ago
It’s like when they used to lynch people in the streets, because they knew the foaming mob was with them.
Now they know we can all see it, and these pork fried savages are daring us to do something about it.
•
u/DiverseVoltron 1h ago
I didn't know about this. What an absolute crooked crock of shit. Republicans are the fucking enemy.
•
•
u/WillaBerble 20m ago
They did similar shit in some rightwing midwest piece of shit state where the republicans in the congress passed a bill to deliberately weaken the governor's power because a democrat won the election.
•
•
•
u/Princess_Fluffypants 7m ago
These are the same people who, 60 years ago, would fill community swimming pools in with concrete rather than allowing black people to swim in them.
•
u/AutoModerator 2h ago
It looks like this post is about Politics. Various methods of filtering out content relating to Politics can be found here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.