22nd JDC Judge (and candidate for Louisiana Supreme Court) William “Billy” Burris responds to a question by Sound Off Louisiana‘s Robert Burns at the meeting of the Baton Rouge Press Club of Monday, April 20, 2026 regarding his holding of community activist Belinda Parker Brown in “constructive contempt” of his court. In responding to the question, Burris conveniently omitted (totally) the fact that, on September 7, 2023, he “permanently banned” Parker-Brown from ever appearing in his courtroom again “for life.” His action, however, was quickly overturned by the First Circuit Court of Appeal on January 11, 2024 (only 129 days later!), which ruled that he had no authority to impose such a “broad restriction” on Parker-Brown. Perhaps such outlandish abuse of judicial authority has contributed heavily to what his opponent, Blair Downing Edwards, has cited as an astounding 42 percent rate of overturn by the First Circuit.
Interestingly enough, the initial defendant in the whole matter….. who ultimately had her charges dropped by the prosecution, has also indicated a desire to, along with Parker-Brown, appear on Sound Off Louisiana to state first-hand what all she asserts happened during her prosecution. We look very forward to having that opportunity very soon!
Well, that “very soon” is the very next day as Ms. India was very anxious to tell her side of the story on this matter, and here it is:
4/21/26: Ms. India shares her side of the story regarding the Belinda Parker-Brown – Judge William “Billy” Burris saga.
This is a video blog, and we believe the above video speaks for itself, so with its publication, we consider this feature a wrap!
Despite forum moderator Jim Engster having seen Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns on numerous occasions at Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC) meetings over the last 11 years, on Monday, April 20, 2026 he nevertheless sought to belittle Burns by inquiring, “Could you tell us what Sound Off Louisiana is?” Well, for one thing, we’re the “video blog” which first broke the Ronald Greene matter on September 10, 2020.
The finding stemmed from Parker-Brown’s interactions during a recess in the misdemeanor case State v. India Armani Ratliff (a member of her organization, Louisiana United International). Parker-Brown was accused of interfering with the public defender’s representation of the defendant by providing unauthorized legal advice or assistance without a license, in violation of Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure Articles 23:4 and 23:6.
On September 7, 2023 (as noted on the prior-linked feature), after a hearing, Judge Burris imposed a $1,000 fine (plus costs) and permanently banned Parker-Brown from his courtroom (Division E) and all misdemeanor proceedings in the 22nd JDC, unless she was subpoenaed as a witness, appeared as a party, or obtained specific written authorization from the presiding judge.
In the immediate aftermath, Parker-Brown initiated litigation to challenge the contempt finding, fine, and ban on constitutional grounds (primarily First Amendment protections for speech and petition rights, as well as related Sixth Amendment issues concerning the defendant’s right to counsel). The key filings and proceedings follow:
Federal removal attempt (September 2023): On the day of the contempt hearing (or shortly before), Parker-Brown and Ratliff filed a Joint Notice of Removal to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (case referenced as 2:23-cv-05119). They asserted violations of federal rights by the state court. Parker-Brown also filed a “suggestion of Contempt of Removal,” seeking to have Judge Burris appear before the federal court to show cause why he should not face sanctions. As we have previously reported, U.S. District Judge Lance M. Africk summarily remanded the matter back to the 22nd JDC on or about September 18, 2023.The federal court ruled that the removal was untimely (exceeding the 30-day limit under 28 U.S.C. § 1455(b)(1)), procedurally deficient (lacking required copies of pleadings and orders), and lacked any statutory basis (e.g., no showing that Parker-Brown was acting under federal officers per 28 U.S.C. § 1442).The motion against Judge Burris was dismissed as moot.
State appellate review: Parker-Brown also filed an application for supervisory writs to the Louisiana Court of Appeal, First Circuit (Docket No. 2023 KW 0989). On January 11, 2024, the court upheld the contempt finding (determining that the evidence was sufficient beyond a reasonable doubt) but vacated the $1,000 fine as exceeding the statutory maximum of $500 under La. Code Crim. P. art. 25(B) and remanded for resentencing. It also reversed the permanent ban, holding that the trial court erred by imposing such a broad restriction under its contempt authority. A subsequent application for rehearing was largely denied (with partial grant on clerical matters). Parker-Brown then sought review from the Louisiana Supreme Court (Docket No. 2024 KK 00539), which denied the writ application on September 17, 2024.
U.S. Supreme Court petition: Parker-Brown filed a pro se petition for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court (Docket No. 24-667, In re Belinda Parker Brown v. State of Louisiana), with supporting appendices filed in December 2024. The petition raised First Amendment challenges, arguing that the contempt citation and associated restrictions unconstitutionally punished out-of-court speech and advocacy during a recess (at the defendant’s invitation and without obstructing proceedings), failing the “clear and present danger” standard for overriding free-speech protections. The petition was ultimately denied by the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, April 20, 2026, Judge Burris was a participant in the Baton Rouge Press Club (BRPC)’s forum featuring the two candidates for the vacancy in the Louisiana Supreme Court which arose as a result of the elevation of Associate Justice William J. Crain to the Federal judiciary. Burris’ opponent, Judge Blair Downing Edwards (wife of former long-time Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff Daniel Edwards, former Gov. John Bel Edwards’ brother), presently serves on the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Both candidates are Republicans and, since they are the only two candidates who qualified for the race, the winner of the May 16, 2026 election will be the newest Louisiana Supreme Court Justice.
At the forum, Sound Off Louisiana founder Robert Burns attempted to pose a question about the above matter, only to be almost immediately shut down by forum moderator Jim Engster. Nevertheless, in the limited highly censored (and, in our minds, inappropriate) action by Engster, each candidate did respond to the question, and here are those responses in full and, in total nonconformity with the “Jim Engster censoring modus operandi,” without one single second edited out of either candidates’ response:
After Engster severely curtails Burns’ question regarding the detailed post above (but with him obviously willing to kill valuable time asking Burns to elaborate on what “Sound Off Louisiana is,”) each candidate responds to the highly censored question.
It’s sort of comical to an extent that Engster publicly professed to be unfamiliar with Sound Off Louisiana (trust us, he most certainly is), yet Burris readily knew that Burns had previously done a feature on his court hearing entailing Parker Brown. How ironic, huh?
Now, in fairness to Engster, he did close the forum with a compliment to Burns, and Burns responded in kind. Here’s that short segment:
Engster closes with a smile toward Burns and saying, “He’s a good man,” to which Burns responded: “He (Engster) is too.”
Had we not felt we’d more than worn out our welcome with Engster, we would have loved to have posed this question: “How do each of you feel about cameras being permitted in the courtroom?” Who knows, perhaps Engster may have permitted Burns to squeeze in that entire 13 words.
Look, we all have shortcomings (and that most certainly includes Burns), and we’re going to write off today’s episode with Engster as merely an instance in which he exposed one of his shortcomings. We are, however, making it clear that he’s not going to intimidate Burns one iota if that’s his gameplan!
Through modern technology, Belinda Parker-Brown has viewed Burris’ statements above and sought a Zoom meeting for her to counter his statements. We have completed that Zoom meeting with her, and here is its contents:
Parker-Brown (along with a brief appearance by her husband, Carl) respond to Burris’ statement above regarding her being “permanently banned” from his courtroom.
Interestingly enough, the initial defendant in the whole matter, India Armani Ratliff, who ultimately had her charges dropped by the prosecution, has also indicated a desire to, along with Parker-Brown, appear on Sound Off Louisiana to state first-hand what all she asserts happened during her prosecution. We look very forward to having that opportunity very soon!
In the meantime, let us just say that we attended the forum with the expectation that, since the race is between two incumbent members of the Judicial Branch of Louisiana Government, we expected a pretty low-key non-attack forum.
At the meeting of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology (LSBC) on Monday, April 13, 2026, Rev. Freddie Phillips demonstrates the throwing of a “challenge flag” regarding the Board’s claim that 570 permitted braiders exist in Louisiana.
As I indicated that I was going to do, I am drafting this email to voice my extreme frustration and anger regarding the utter failure of the Louisiana State Board of Cosmetology to provide an acceptable venue for conducting its meetings.
I maintain fully my emphatic statement that “a circus tent” would be a drastic improvement over your existing venue; furthermore, your continued insistence on violating the Louisiana Fire Marshall’s maximum room capacity of 22 persons in this atrocious excuse of a meeting venue is completely and totally unacceptable!
We are going to produce a feature in coming weeks with considerably more detail regarding this ongoing battle between Burns and the LSBC in which we demonstrate in excruciating details some of the acts of complete and total unprofessionalism which the Board has engaged in recent weeks regarding this matter.
That is going to conclude the point of personal privilege, and we’re now going to move on to the latest salvo of the annual saga of whether Louisiana will ever free its hair braiders to legally work without the need for an utterly absurd 500 hours of instruction (emphasis on “legally” as we contend about 98.4 percent of Louisiana braiders simply ignore the absurd law and don’t dignify the LSBC).
We believe our contention is sound given that one State Representative, C. Denise Marcelle, appeared before the LSBC a year ago and, during her presentation, she stated that it is, “kind of crazy” to license hair braiders! Those are her words, not ours, and we believe she is in a better position to know than us. Furthermore, Marcelle indicated that, even if licensure was required, “the braiders are not going to submit themselves to you.”
That fact notwithstanding, two bills are expected to soon obtain their first House Commerce Committee hearings. One bill would deregulate hair braiding, and the other would actually increase the number of hours required to “legally” braid hair from 500 hours to 600 hours.
At the April 13, 2026 LSBC meeting, Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips brought a white towel to symbolize the equivalent of an NFL challenge flag to the Board’s utterly false assertion that Louisiana has 570 permitted braiders today. Here’s Phillips’ public comment on the matter:
4/13/26: Phillips reviews paperwork he obtained from the LSBC which he lambasts as being “unacceptable.”
A little background is in order regarding Phillips’ commentary. First, Phillips has been testifying before both the House and Senate Commerce Committees entailing deregulating the hair braiding industry for eight (8) years. He plans to testify again this year, and he made a simple request for Burns to inquire about the current number of braiders in Louisiana in order that his testimony could be based on facts. Accordingly, what ensued was this email exchange trying to ascertain the answer to Phillips’ extremely simple and basic question. Here is the initial response from the LSBC:
Good morning,
I have conferred with our IT department and we have a total of 570 alternative hair design permit holders.
Tisha
Immediately, and we do mean immediately, upon being provided with that number, Phillips said, “Rob, if we were coaches on an NFL team with you as head coach and me as an assistant coach, I would be imploring you to throw the red challenge flag on that last play immediately! There is no way there are 570 braiders holding permits in this state! No way!”
Phillips’ emphatic statement prompted us to do exactly as he said do and even making a football analogy in the process in our correspondence back to the Board, to wit:
Tisha:
I want to again thank you for your prompt response to my previous public records request and the fact you were even willing to just answer a question rather than forcing the issue of mandatory request for documents.
I don’t know if you are a fan of NFL football or NCAA football, but I need to make an analogy in making this latest public records request:
I am the head coach of the team, and your response to the last public records request is the latest play in the game. After the play concluded (i.e. once you sent the email), several of my assistant coaches, most especially Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips, Jr., whom I’ve copied on this email, have approached me and asked me to essentially throw the equivalent of the “red challenge flag” in an NFL or NCAA football game.
If you’re unfamiliar with that aspect of football, each team is permitted a certain number of challenges per half and, based upon my assistant coaches (again, most especially Rev. Phillips), and the repeated publications which have been made that, as of 2022, only approximately 38 permitted hair braiders existed in Louisiana in contrast to 6,700 in Mississippi at that same timeframe, and I want to refresh anyone’s memory by providing the link to this feature on Sound Off Louisiana from nearly a year ago: https://www.soundoffla.com/state-rep-c-denise-marcellmakes-surprise-appearance-at-cosmetology-board-meeting-and-states-that-its-kind-of-crazy-toput-licensure-on-hair-braiders/
In that article, I draw particular attention to this passage:
“As we have previously reported, Mississippi has 6,700 registered hair braiders (as of 2022) whereas Louisiana has approximately 38.”
Given the response you provided below, one can only conclude that some 530 braiders have obtained permits since 2022.
On Mar 20, 2026, at 1:08 PM, Tisha Butler <[email protected]> wrote:
Good afternoon,
I am truly sorry and I appreciate the fact that you were able to reference the previous numbers that were given from past years and as a result, we have looked into the figures given. Our technology department is truly antiquated and running reports is not as simple as it once was, because of that we gave you an inaccurate number of alternative hair design permitters of 570. We have since re-ran the report and the true figure is 124.
What boggles our mind is that the email inquiry was sent to the Executive Director of the LSBC, the Assistant Executive Director of the LSBC, and the attorney for the LSBC, and the reply email back indicating “570 braiders” was also received by everyone in the email chain. That fact notwithstanding, and with all of the testimony and integral institutional knowledge that should exist among the LSBC, especially given the legal expenditures it has expended fighting hair braiders (approximately $156,603, or $1,262 per permitted braider in Louisiana) , it took an “outsider” (though we maintain Phillips knows a ton about the braiding industry in Louisiana) to catch such a glaringly exaggerated number!
We also have to concur with Phillips in his statements on the video above that, “You don’t need a computer program to keep up with that few braiders.”
We can only assume that Legislative testimony will once again be downright comical based on some other public comments made at yesterday’s LSBC meeting, to include most notably Lynn Johnson, who warns of “strokes” if this year’s cosmetology deregulation bills all pass:
4/13/26: Johnson outlines all of the apocalyptic developments she says will unfold if Louisiana lawmakers pass deregulation bills for the cosmetology industry, yet she fails to mention why such developments have not transpired in the 37 states requiring no license or permit for hair braiding.
Notice that, in her introduction, Johnson asks in advance to exceed the Board’s “three-minute rule” indicating that she expects to take four (4) minutes. For members like Phillips making public comment, the Board sternly enforces the three-minute rule; however, as noted by one audience member and as reflected in the duration of the above video, the Board had no qualms permitting Johnson to ramble on (and we do mean ramble) for in excess of six minutes.
This behavior is absolutely not how a public body is supposed to operate! Either the rule is enforced or it is not, but no public body should allow the rule to be relaxed when hearing commentary the Members find soothing to their ears and demand a cessation of public comment when hearing words they don’t want to hear!
Johnson actually reached out to us via email after the meeting, to wit:
I attended the LSCB meeting today. I would like to sit down with you to discuss your ideas for the bills that are currently in office and any other issues you have with the LSBC.
Let me know if you are open to this kind of conversation. If you are then we can set a meeting day and time that is convenient for both of us.
Regards
Lynn Johnson
Given the diametrically opposed viewpoints of Johnson and Burns, there’s a better chance of President Donald Trump and the top Iranian leaders having a meeting and peacefully and graciously exiting that meeting saying, “We’re all now in one accord,” than anything productive coming from a meeting between Johnson and Burns!
Further illustrating the total unprofessionalism of the Board Members in insisting on violating the State Fire Marshall Code capacity of 22 people, let’s take a look at another rambler, whose first name is “Paula,” and we think the last name may be Downing, but with all of the background noise, it’s tough to make out the letters Member Rene Bosworth says when Chairman Reed asks for her name. Please note that viewers are forced to stare at the back of her head for the vast majority of the presentation! That goes directly to the unprofessionalism of the LSBC Members regarding the meeting venue and, again, we are going to have another feature in coming weeks on that one issue alone. In the meantime, here’s Paula’s public comment:
4/13/26: Paula provides her public comment and, toward the end, makes sure to note that increasing the hours to 600 from 500 will enable students to qualify for a Pell Grant.
Former LSBC Chairman Frances Hand stated years ago that cosmetologists are not mere “hairdressers” and stressed how much more “professional” the industry has become. It becomes extremely hard to accept that premise when one observes the kind of utterly unprofessional behavior we’ve seen exhibited by these Board Members, who clearly are focused solely and exclusively on a desperate attempt to obtain more Federal funds by trying to increase the number of hours for a braiding permit from 500 to 600, over the last few weeks, but we’re going to have much more to say on that in a subsequent feature!
Until then, pop a huge bag of intensely buttered popcorn because it seems obvious the LSBC plans to provide more propaganda at these upcoming Legislative Committee hearings than even the utter falsehoods uttered about the Board’s financial position at last year’s Legislative Session.
Fortunately, we citizens have Rev. Freddie Lee Phillips around to have them “toe the line” by throwing challenge flags when they make absurd representations like having 570 permitted braiders in Louisiana.
