Opinion
No. 16-C-1551
08-15-2016
LEILA EAMES, MED CULLINS, BETTY PARKER AND JOSEPHINE STRONG v. KENNETH CUTNO AND TOM SCHEDLER IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FIRST CIRCUIT, PARISH OF EAST BATON ROUGE JOHNSON, Chief Justice, concurs and assigns reasons.
I concur in the denial of the writ application for the following reasons. Qualifications for the office of United States Representative are contained in La. Const. Art. 1, Section 1. These qualifications are exclusive, and neither a state constitution nor state law can add to nor take away from such qualifications. U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton, 514 U.S. 779, 805, 115 S.Ct. 1842, 1856, 131 L.Ed.2d 881 (1995). Because Mr. Cutno is seeking the office of United States Representative, he is not subject to the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act pursuant to La. R.S. 18:463 (A)(2)(a)(v), and therefore not required to certify that he does not owe any outstanding fines, fees, or penalties under state campaign finance law.