What The Practice Of State Preemption Means For Our Democracy
1A
NPR
4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
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Summary
He received 68 percent of the vote, beating out a powerful incumbent. He has some personal experience with Louisiana courts. He was incarcerated for a murder conviction for 28 years. He studied criminal law to advocate for himself, and a judge eventually found him innocent. He was freed in 2011.
But now, the Louisiana state legislature has moved to eliminate his position. State officials voted to combine his office with another in a move that state senators said was meant to save money. Duncan is taking legal action and a lawsuit over his role is now making its way through the courts. This situation is part of a larger trend across the nation where state legislatures are more and more often undoing decisions made by local officials.
“State preemption” describes steps a state government can take to tell a local city or town council it can’t do something. Legislators in states like Florida, Missouri, California, West Virginia, Michigan, and Louisiana have been using it to influence events and regulations in their communities.
What’s leading to more frequent, and public, fights between state legislatures and local governments? And what could defuse these fights?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Last November, Calvin Duncan won an election to serve as the criminal court clerk for New Orleans. |
| 0:13.3 | He received 68% of the vote beating out a powerful incumbent. |
| 0:17.6 | Duncan ran on improving the court system, especially access to criminal records. |
| 0:22.2 | His criticism of the system came from personal experience. He was incarcerated for a murder |
| 0:27.5 | conviction in Louisiana's Angola State Prison for 28 years. He studied criminal law to |
| 0:33.0 | advocate for his case, and after years of petitions, he was released and later exonerated. But now, the |
| 0:39.7 | Republican-controlled Louisiana state legislature has moved to eliminate Duncan's position. In the |
| 0:44.8 | weeks and days before he was set to take office on May 4th, the legislature voted to combine the civil |
| 0:50.5 | and criminal court systems in New Orleans. State senators who supported it the bill say it was to make the system more efficient. |
| 0:57.8 | Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signed the bill into law over the weekend. |
| 1:02.6 | Duncan sued, and a lawsuit over his role is now making its way through the courts. |
| 1:07.2 | I'm Jen White. You're listening to the 1A podcast. We'll be back with more after this short break. Stay with us. |
| 1:17.6 | Welcome back to the 1A podcast. Joining us now from New Orleans is Calvin Duncan. He's the elected clerk of criminal court for Orleans Parish, which covers the city of New Orleans. He's also co-author |
| 1:29.1 | with Sophie Call of the jailhouse lawyer. Calvin, welcome to 1A. Yes, a pleasure. Thank you. |
| 1:35.3 | And a note that a 1A listener in New Orleans suggested Calvin Duncan's story to us. We always want to hear |
| 1:41.1 | about big stories happening where you live. Email us at 1A at wamu.org. |
| 1:46.3 | So, Calvin, you've had a complicated couple of weeks. |
| 1:49.2 | You took office on Monday after a court ruling over the weekend, put the changes we mentioned |
| 1:53.5 | on hold, meaning your job would still exist, but that ruling has since been blocked. |
| 1:59.1 | How would you describe this experience in the run-up to |
| 2:01.2 | taking office with these questions about whether you'll be able to serve in the position to which |
| 2:05.3 | you were elected? Well, it was a good experience, although it was for three hours. It was |
... |
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