Legislative Authority to Add or Remove Unclassified Civil Service Positions Amendment
Louisiana Ballot Measure - Amendment 1
Election: May 16, 2026 (Special)
Outcome: Failed
Categories:
Legislative BranchGovernment Operations
Employment and Affirmative Action
Summary
The constitutional amendment would allow the Louisiana State Legislature to add officers, positions, and employees to the unclassified civil service, including by transferring them from the classified civil service. Additionally, the legislature would be allowed to remove them from the unclassified civil service.
As of 2025, the seven-member State Civil Service Commission determined whether positions are classified or unclassified. The constitutional amendment would allow the commission to continue placing positions in the unclassified service, but the commission would no longer be allowed to move positions out of the unclassified service. That authority would belong solely to the state legislature.
Measure Text
Section 2.
(A) Classified Service. The state and city civil service is divided into the unclassified and the classified service. Persons not included in the unclassified service are in the classified service.
(B) Unclassified Service. The unclassified service shall include the following officers and employees in the state and city civil service:
(1) elected officials and persons appointed to fill vacancies in elective offices;
(2) the heads of each principal executive department appointed by the governor, the mayor, or the governing authority of a city;
(3) city attorneys;
(4) registrars of voters;
(5) members of state and city boards, authorities, and commissions;
(6) one private secretary to the president of each college or university;
(7) one person holding a confidential position and one principal assistant or deputy to any officer, board, commission, or authority mentioned in (1), (2), (4), or (5) above, except civil service departments;
(8) members of the military or naval forces;
(9) teaching and professional staffs, and administrative officers of schools, colleges, and universities of the state, and bona fide students of those institutions employed by any state, parochial, or municipal agency;
(10) employees, deputies, and officers of the legislature and of the offices of the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, each mayor and city attorney, of police juries, school boards, assessors, and of all offices provided for in Article V of this constitution except the offices of clerk of the municipal and traffic courts in New Orleans;
(11) commissioners of elections, watchers, and custodians and deputy custodians of voting machines;
(12) railroad employees whose working conditions and retirement benefits are regulated by federal agencies in accordance with federal law; and
(13) the director, deputy director, and all employees of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Additional positions may be added to the unclassified service and those positions may be revoked by rules adopted by a commission. Additional officers, positions, and employees may be added to the unclassified service in the state civil service by law and such additional officers, positions, and employees may be removed from the unclassified service only by law.
Resources
Official Summary
Full Text
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