Louisiana’s Attorney General Jeff Landry asked a judge on Thursday to block Gov. John Bel Edwards’ order banning discrimination in state government against LGBT people, in an escalating dispute over the workplace protection language.
The Associated Press reports that in his court challenge, Landry says Edwards’ anti-discrimination order violates state law and exceeds the governor’s authority. Landry is seeking to have the order declared unconstitutional.
Landry says he filed the petition “so the court may decide if the governor can circumvent the Legislature to create his own law.” Edwards has accused Landry of putting “his own political interests ahead of the needs of our state.”
“He maintains only businesses that reserve the right to discriminate are eligible for a state contract, and that’s just wrong,” the governor says. “New opportunities arise for our state every day because we will not discriminate, including having the 2017 NBA All-Star Game relocate to New Orleans.”
The NBA moved the game from North Carolina because that state has a law that restricts the rights of LGBT people.
Louisiana’s governor and attorney general have clashed repeatedly over the anti-discrimination order Edwards issued in April, which prohibits discrimination in government and state contracts based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The order includes an exception for contractors that are religious organizations.
Landry’s office issued an opinion in May saying the order has “no binding legal effect” because it seeks to establish a new protected class of people that doesn’t exist in law and that lawmakers have refused to add. He’s blocked dozens of contracts to let state agencies hire outside lawyers that contain the anti-discrimination clause.
Edwards says he won’t rescind the order, and he sued Landry over the attorney general’s refusal to approve the legal contracts containing the LGBT-rights language. A judge ruled against Edwards this week, suggesting the attorney general has discretion in how his office reviews the legal contracts.
