On Monday, thanks to a favorable decision, Duncan served as clerk of Criminal District Court for three hours, until the Fifth Circuit put a hold on that decision. Outside of court, he has become a newfound New Orleans celebrity.
He may not have an office to assume if the legislature moves to eliminate the clerk of criminal court. But on Tuesday, Calvin Duncan was sworn into the office, to reflect the will of the electorate, he said.
With no uniform definition of what makes a ‘case,’ legislators must blindly guess at court caseloads.
Filings tracked by the Louisiana Supreme Court significantly undercount the number of people processed in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in 2025.
Louisiana income ranked third-lowest in the nation in 1970 and has maintained that rank. Higher incomes are tied to levels of education, foreign-born population, and — in New Orleans — being white.
Calvin Duncan, an uncommon man with an all-too-common story, is vying to become clerk of Orleans Parish Criminal District Court – and his campaign may have gathered enough momentum to draw fire from high-powered Louisiana officials.
“There’s something full circle about our Katrina baby protecting swimmers in the Lower 9th Ward from deep water,” Lens editor Katy Reckdahl writes in an essay about the city and her son, who was born 23 hours before Katrina struck the city.
Lost Coyote restaurant in Treme was on track for its first record-profit day during Memorial Day weekend, when a sudden blackout brought it all to a standstill.
Anthony Hingle Jr. didn’t touch beads or feathers for 32 years. Now he’s back in town, continuing the work of his father, Flagboy Meathead, a legend among Black Masking Indians.
People still say, ‘That’s not the Jessie I knew.’ But most didn’t know what he endured at home – and that’s likely what drove him on that day, psychiatrists say.
