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Bernette Johnson was sworn in Friday as the first black chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court, less than four months after her colleagues resolved a dispute over whether she was entitled to the position.
Johnson took the oath of office during a brief ceremony a day after her predecessor, Catherine "Kitty" Kimball, formally retired. A public ceremony marking her investiture is scheduled for February 28 on the courthouse steps in New Orleans' French Quarter.
"After serving for 10 years as a district trial judge, and then as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, I feel well-prepared for the tasks ahead as the chief administrative officer of the judicial system of the state," Johnson said in a statement. "I am ready to serve, and excited about the challenges of this new position."
Johnson filed a federal lawsuit in July 2012 after her colleagues said they would debate whether she or Justice Jeffrey Victory, who is white, had the seniority that entitled them to succeed Kimball.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan ruled in September that Johnson had more seniority, but stopped short of ordering the state's highest court to name Johnson as Kimball's successor.
The Louisiana Supreme Court ended the racially tinged power struggle in October, ruling that Johnson's years of appointed service count when deciding which justice is "oldest in point of service" under the state constitution.
Voters elected Johnson in 1994 to the state appeals court, and she was assigned to the Supreme Court as part of settlement of an earlier lawsuit that claimed the system for electing justices diluted black voting strength and violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965. She served an eighth Supreme Court district centered in New Orleans until the court reverted back to seven districts in 2000, when she was elected to the high court.
Victory joined the court in 1995, a year after Johnson, but said her years of appointed service shouldn't count.
Johnson, Victory and a third judge who stood to be second in line if Victory's argument prevailed were recused from debating the matter.
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