On Friday, October 24, 2025, the Louisiana Supreme Court suspended Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Jennifer M. Medley for 30 days without pay, ordering her to reimburse the Judiciary Commission of Louisiana $2,747.41 for campaign finance violations. The ruling stems from unethical conduct during her 2020 judicial campaign against then-incumbent Judge Christopher Bruno.
The case is entitled “In the Matter of Judge Jennifer M. Medley,” with case number 2025-O-00879.
The Judiciary Commission initially alleged four counts of misconduct, but the Supreme Court only upheld Counts II and IV, dismissing Counts I and III. The upheld charges involve a “deadbeat dad” advertisement targeting Judge Bruno and unreported campaign payments.
Count II centered on a campaign video accusing Judge Bruno of being a “deadbeat dad” who refused to pay child support for thirteen years. Although Judge Bruno obtained a temporary restraining order (TRO) to prevent the ad from airing, Judge Medley’s campaign Facebook page repeated statements from the advertisement. While a lower court did not find Judge Medley in contempt of the TRO, it did find that the commercial contained falsities, granting a preliminary injunction against further distribution of the false statements. The Fourth Circuit affirmed this decision, finding that Judge Medley “knew her commercial was false or at the very least acted with reckless disregard for whether her statements in the commercial were false.”
The Supreme Court found that Judge Medley knowingly made false statements about her opponent, violating Canons 7A(9), 7B(1), and 7B(3) of the Code of Judicial Conduct and La. Const. art. V, § 25.
Count IV involved two unreported payments totaling $1,200 made by Judge Medley to the plaintiff in Doe v. Lewis via the Zelle application. These payments were intended to reimburse travel expenses incurred for the production of a campaign video but were not listed on her campaign finance report, violating La. R.S. 18:1483(9) and 18:1495.4-1495.5. The Commission discovered the payments after issuing a subpoena and receiving Judge Medley’s bank statements. Judge Medley admitted it was an “error” and “oversight” that she did not properly report the payments.
The Supreme Court agreed that Judge Medley’s failure to report these payments is a violation of Canon 7B(1)’s requirement that a judicial candidate “maintain the dignity appropriate to judicial office and act in a manner consistent with the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary.”
The court dismissed Count I, which concerned a video involving the plaintiff in Doe v. Lewis, where the plaintiff claimed Judge Bruno was biased against her. The court found that the Commission did not prove by clear and convincing evidence that Judge Medley made knowingly false statements in violation of Canons 7A(9) or 7B(1) of the Code of Judicial Conduct as alleged in Count I.
Count III, regarding a $100,000 campaign loan from IV Capital, LLC, was also dismissed. The Commission alleged the loan “gave the appearance of attempting to circumvent campaign finance law and/or exploiting a loophole in the law.” The Louisiana Board of Ethics found no violation of the Campaign Finance Disclosure Act concerning Judge Medley’s loan from IV Capital, LLC, and the Commission conceded the same.
Chief Justice John L. Weimer concurred with the majority findings, emphasizing the importance of protecting political speech, particularly in judicial elections. He agreed with dismissing Count I but finding a violation of Count II because Judge Medley knowingly made false statements.
Judge Medley was previously admonished by the Commission on December 22, 2022, for holding an attorney in direct contempt of court without following proper procedures as required by law and for imposing a sentence for contempt not authorized by law.
A copy of the original filing can be found here.
