The baby fit session

The first thing you need to understand about Republicans is they love government. They love it so much they are now calling everybody back to the big government building to do bonus governing. 

Louisiana lawmakers will return to Baton Rouge for an unprecedented session aimed at overriding the vetoes of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, after a majority of legislators signaled their intent to convene the veto session.

House Speaker Clay Schexnayder said in a statement Friday the Legislature will hold the first-ever veto session, which begins next week.

“In accordance with the Louisiana Constitution and the will of the majority of its members, the Legislature will return to Baton Rouge to consider overriding vetoes made by Governor Edward’s this session,” Schexnayder said. “This is democracy in action.”

Is it "democracy in action?" We have to trust that it is, I guess. The other thing we understand about Republicans is that they do love democracy. Which is why they passed bills like these that would have made the elections process more difficult and less accessible for thousands of Louisiana voters had the Governor not vetoed them. In the baby fit session, they could try and override either of those vetoes, or anything else from the list. But probably they will only focus on two. 

The first is Beth Mizell's obscenely cruel ban on trans high school students participating in sports. John Bel had some high minded phrasing in explanation of his veto. 

“As I have said repeatedly when asked about this bill, discrimination is not a Louisiana value, and this bill was a solution in search of a problem that simply does not exist in Louisiana,” Edwards said in a written statement Tuesday. “Even the author of the bill acknowledged throughout the legislative session that there wasn’t a single case where this was an issue.”

“It would make life more difficult for transgender children, who are some of the most vulnerable Louisianans when it comes to issues of mental health. We should be looking for more ways to unite rather than divide our citizens,” Edwards said.

All of that is true. However, I strongly suspect the Governor wouldn't care about any of it were it not for the economic incentive. 

New Orleans officials and tourism leaders have also warned that the legislation could spell trouble for Louisiana’s economy. Sports leagues have boycotted states over gay and transgender restrictions in recent years. The state — and particularly New Orleans — could also lose movie productions, concerts, business conventions and other regular tourism business over such a restriction. 

“[The bill] does present real problems in that it makes it more likely that NCAA and professional championships, like the 2022 Final Four, would not happen in our state,” Edwards said in his written statement about his veto Tuesday.

“They will have a negative impact,” said Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, a Republican official in charge of the state’s tourism efforts, when asked about the proposed transgender restrictions in April. “It would be better for us to open our doors very wide.”

Even Billy Nungesser is sufficiently motivated to let this bill die.  It's hard to imagine the entirety of the Republican caucus holding together to push it through. From the looks of things, there are barely enough of them there to override anything. That is if we can gauge according to where they stood on the question of even being there in the first place.

Of 105 House members, 69 did not send in ballots to cancel the veto session, meaning one short of two-thirds felt a veto session was necessary. In the Senate, 27 of 39 members, one more than two-thirds, signaled support for a veto session.

Maybe they are figuring on doing some arm twisting and favor trading once they all get in the room. But one would think that process would work against an override with real money on the line. 

The other main target of the baby fit is Edwards's veto of Jay Morris's carry-your-gun-around-wherever-you-want-as-a-security-blanket bill.  

Senate Bill 118, sponsored by Sen. Jay Morris (R-West Monroe), would have amended Louisiana’s concealed carry permit law, which requires applicants to pass background checks and pass a nine-hour course that includes live-fire training in order to carry a concealed handgun in public spaces. Louisiana residents can already carry a gun openly in public — referred to as “open carry” — without any special permits as long as the firearm is in plain view. 

Again, though, the path to overriding this veto is not clear. Numerous political formations, including various law enforcement groups are urging lawmakers to let the veto stand.  Given the slim margins and given what looks to be strong political opposition to either of these overrides, one has to wonder what the babies are even having the baby fit session for in the first place.

It's not clear what they're doing there. But it is worth paying attention to what goes on. Even if neither of the marquee issues sees action, all of the governor's vetoes are in play. Maybe they'll pick something less controversial and override that just to see if they can.  Just in case that happens, various lobbying groups are already sending in suggestions.  The Jefferson Parish Chamber, for example, put out a press release today urging overrides in favor of a Barrow Peacock bill that would have imposed limitations on the kind of advertising lawyers can do.  They also are advocating for Rick Edmonds's bill that would have required school districts to share more information with the "Louisiana Checkbook" website.  Neither of those sounds particularly necessary but they're also just innocuous enough to squeak through if the legislators feel like they need to justify their decision to even be there for this.

They also make good test cases if something like this turns out to be the actual project which would also make sense to me.

Correct. Also, the end goal of the other side here is to be able to totally control redistricting. This is a test.

— Mandie Landry (@votelandry) July 16, 2021

What Representative Landry is talking about there is next year's looming fight over redrawing political boundaries based on the 2020 Census results. That promises to be a complex and acrimonious battle fought in several venues and the legislature's theoretical ability to override the Governor is certainly a weapon that could come into play.  The session we are about to see might just be a baby fit. But next year could bring massive convulsions.