Jeffrey P. Victory

Jeffrey Paul Victory (born January 29, 1946) is a lawyer from Shreveport, Louisiana.^[1] He served from 1995 to 2014 as an associate justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. His former 2nd Judicial District embraces eleven parishes in northwestern Louisiana. Victory was a member of the Democratic Party who became a Republican.

Victory did not seek reelection to the Supreme Court in 2014. Republican Judge Scott Crichton of the Louisiana 1st Judicial District Court in Caddo Parish ran unopposed to succeed Victory.^[2]

Early years[]

A son of Thomas Edward Victory and the former Esther Horton, Victory graduated in 1963 as a member of the National Honor Society at C. E. Byrd High School in Shreveport. He entered United Methodist-affiliated Centenary College in Shreveport on an athletic scholarship; in 1967 he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in the fields of history and government.^[3] While at Centenary, Victory worked at the former Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant west of Minden and as a roughneck in the oilfields.^[4]

In 1967, he entered the Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans, where he was a staff member of the Tulane Law Review. While at Tulane, he enlisted in the Louisiana National Guard Special Airborne Forces.^[3]

After graduation from Tulane in 1971, he practiced law with the Shreveport firm of Tucker Jeter and Jackson.^[3] He is a past president of Shreveport Young Lawyers and served on the Louisiana Sentencing Commission.^[5]

Judicial tenure[]

In 1981, Victory, then a Democrat, was elected to the Louisiana 1st Judicial District Court in Caddo Parish. In 1990, he was elected to the Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal, encompassing Caddo, Red River, and DeSoto parishes. In the election held on October 6, 1990, he defeated fellow Democrat James E. Clark of Shreveport, 43,516 (55 percent) to 35,599 (45 percent).^[6]

After four years on the circuit court, Judge Victory ran for a ten-year term on the State Supreme Court in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 1, 1994 against fellow Democrats Henry Newton Brown Jr., of Bossier City and Charles R. Scott. Brown, Victory's colleague on the circuit court, led in the primary with 43,811 votes (37.5 percent). Victory trailed with 36,522 votes (31.27 percent), 42 votes ahead of the third-place candidate, Charles Scott, who received 36,480 votes (31.23 percent).^[7]

In the second round of balloting on November 8, 1994, Victory prevailed over Brown, who had earlier been district attorney for Bossier and Webster parishes, 69,864 (53 percent) to 62,048 (47 percent). Supreme Court terms in Louisiana are for ten years.^[8] A native of Bienville Parish, Henry Brown is now the Chief Judge of the Louisiana 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. He ran unopposed for the position in 2010 and his current term goes until December 31, 2020.

In 2004, in his second election to the Supreme Court, Victory ran for the first time as a Republican. In the primary, he defeated Democrat Stephen Beasley, 74,320 (60.9 percent) to 47,799 (39.1 percent). Beasley lost although he carried six of the eleven parishes.^[9]

On January 8, 2009, Justice Victory swore Charles R. Scott into office as the new Caddo Parish district attorney; he is a Natchitoches native and the Democrat whom Victory had defeated for the high court fourteen years earlier.^[10]

In May 2014, Victory was the only member of the high court who wanted to hear the appeal of four professors at Louisiana College who were dismissed in 2005 in a dispute over biblical inerrancy. The other justices said that they would not become entangled in the nuances of Baptist theology and the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. LC President Joe W. Aguillard said the justices' refusal to hear the appeal was "priceless".^[11]

Victory fails to win chief justice position[]

Victory sought to succeed Catherine D. Kimball of Ventress in Pointe Coupee Parish as chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court. She announced in 2012 that she was going to retire from the court on February 1, 2013 because of health issues. Both Victory and his colleague, Bernette Joshua Johnson, an African American from New Orleans, claimed the right to succeed Kimball under the Louisiana Constitution of 1974. It directs that the longest-serving associate justice becomes the chief justice if a vacancy occurs prior to the next regular general election.

In 1984, Johnson was elected to the Orleans Parish Civil District Court; in 1990 she was re-elected and then was elevated to the position of chief justice of the CDC when that opened. Johnson ran unsuccessfully for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on October 1, 1994.^[12]

At this time the Department of Justice was reviewing the structure of the Louisiana Judicial Districts. It concluded that the state violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because these districts were defined in a way that diluted the voting power of African Americans, who constituted a majority in some areas of the state, and prevented them from electing a candidate of their choice. As part of the settlement, DOJ and the state agreed to a consent decree that resulted in Johnson being appointed to the Supreme Court to fill a newly established seventh seat.

Johnson's tenure on the Supreme Court preceded that of Victory by less than three months, and he maintained that he was the legitimate successor as chief justice because he was elected to the Supreme Court on November 8, 1994 after service at a civil district court. Johnson was appointed to the Supreme Court a few weeks after the October election directly from the civil district court of Orleans Parish.^[13]

United States District Judge Susie Morgan ruled in September 2012 that Johnson had greater seniority over Victory but did not order any action. In October 2012, the state Supreme Court declared that Johnson would succeed Kimball because the start of Johnson's tenure predated that of Victory, while acknowledging that she had not been elected to the Supreme Court when she first began to serve in the chamber.^[14] The decision was consistent with the original consent decree that placed Justice Johnson on the Louisiana Supreme Court; it expressly provided that all of Justice Johnson's time on the court would count toward her seniority.^[15]

In 2014, Justice Victory was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award" for constitutional integrity, judicial excellence, and family values by the conservative Louisiana Family Forum.^[16]

Personal life[]

Victory is a member of the committee which has been attempting for several years to establish a Christian law school in downtown Shreveport to be named for Texas Judge Paul Pressler, through the auspices of Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College in Pineville.^[17]

Justice Victory and his wife, Dr. Nancy Clark Victory, have four children, William Peter, Christopher Thomas, Paul Bradford, and Mary Kathryn Victory. The Victory family attends Broadmoor Baptist Church in Shreveport. The judge has been director of the class of high school seniors.^[4] Victory often addresses Baptist groups in Louisiana as well as neighboring states.^[1][18]

References[]