BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY)- Gov. John Bel Edwards is calling for a Louisiana district judge who admittedly used racial slurs to resign.
Jessie LeBlanc, a 23rd judicial district judge in Ascension Parish, publicly apologized earlier this month after her text massages about as a black law clerk were made public.
“The admitted and repeated use of racial slurs by a judge who has taken an oath to administer justice fairly and impartially is wrong, period,” Edwards said in a statement Wednesday. “There is never any circumstance or context in which such derogatory and degrading language is okay.”
LeBlanc said she was upset over the end of her “extramarital affair with a sheriff’s deputy when she sent him text messages including a slur for black people.”
The Louisiana Democratic Party and the Baton Rouge NAACP have also called for her resignation. LeBlanc has gone on record saying she plans stay and run for reelection.
“Sadly, inequities still exist in society and in our judicial system. Judge LeBlanc has compromised her ability to preside as a judge, and she has damaged the judiciary,” Edwards’ statement went on to say. “She should resign. The people of the 23rd Judicial District and our state deserve better.”