House Bill No. 536 proposes significant amendments to the election structure of judges within the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal in Louisiana, particularly for the first district. The bill aims to increase the number of election sections from two to three, resulting in a distribution of judges where four will be assigned to election section one, and one judge each to sections two and three. It also establishes a process for filling vacancies, specifying that the first vacancy after the bill's effective date will be filled by election from section three, which will continue to be designated for that judgeship in future elections. The bill references the 2025 Precinct Shapefiles based on the 2020 Census to clarify the precincts used for these elections and maintains the requirement for six judges to be elected from the first district.

In addition to structural changes, the bill introduces several modifications to existing legal language, including the replacement of terms such as "queue" with "quines" and "lard" with "lurch." It also inserts the name "Jefferson" in multiple instances and updates the term "tern" to "ternne." Furthermore, the bill includes the insertion of "B B" and "S S" in various contexts, indicating an effort to modernize and clarify the legal text. Overall, the bill focuses on refining legal language while restructuring the election process for judges in the first district of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal.

Statutes affected:
HB536 Original: 13:312(5), 13:1(E)(2)