Post Scripts (June 9, 2015)

It appears the district judges may have overstepped their boundaries a little when they unilaterally ordered the banning of cell phones in the three courthouses of the 15th Judicial District.
Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has opined that the judges have complete jurisdiction over their courtrooms, not the entire courthouse (see related story this page).
But the ban — at least in Acadia Parish — is in place and it will probably take some kind of action by the police jury to lift it.
And that raises another problem: How do they keep these devices out of the courtrooms if the building-wide ban is lifted?
According to a report in the Abbeville newspaper, security guards at the Vermilion Parish Courthouse will simply ask patrons upon entering the courthouse if they plan to see a judge or enter a courtroom.
If so, they’ll have to leave their cell phones in their vehicles.
That could work, but, unfortunately, it probably wouldn’t.
Banning cell phones from the courthouse only on trial days would be even more confusing since the general public is not aware of when court is held.
Searching each and every person entering the courtroom on “trial days” would not only be time consuming, but expensive — doubling and sometimes tripling the number of security guards and scanning equipment that would be needed on those days.
It will be interesting to see how the police jury addresses this situation ... and what the judges’ response will be.