A new law approved by Louisiana legislators and by Governor Jeff Landry creates new loopholes that allow public officials to skirt state ethics laws.
Public Affairs Research Council president Stephen Procopio says under the new law, someone could intentionally violate an ethics rule and then ask for an advisory opinion from the Ethics Board to avoid being brought up on charges.
"What this new law says is that an advisory opinion cannot be used as evidence against someone," Procopio said to WWL's Tommy Tucker. "The problem is: sometimes, people will ask for an advisory opinion for something they're already doing."
Procopio told WWL's Tommy Tucker that he's concerned that bad actors will use this new law as a "get out of jail free" card.
"I do have some worries that this is going to be used as a mechanism to actually stop investigations," Procopio said. "You're doing something wrong. You ask for an advisory opinion, and then you say, 'You can't investigate me because I asked for an advisory opinion, and that's how the law reads now."
Procopio notes the law does have some upside.
"There's a little bit of tension here because you have someone that, under the current law, is trying to figure out what they're doing wrong so they can fix it, but sometimes the advisory board will say, 'no, and not only that, we're now going to investigate you,'" Procopio said.
Procopio says despite the law's benefits, he's worried that some officials will exploit the new law in order to violate ethics rules at their leisure.
"There is a potential concern that people could use this as a shield if you're a bad actor to block it," Procopio said.
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