BATON ROUGE — Gov. Jeff Landry wants to move federal cases from Angola in Louisiana's Middle District, where all the judges were appointed by President Barack Obama, to Western District courtrooms where most active judges were appointed by President Donald Trump.

Landry's request, in letters to some members of Congress, came the same day he complained on X that Baton Rouge-based Judge Shelley Dick had released a convicted rapist held on immigration-related charges. Dick said the federal government couldn't show Roberto La Coss would be deported soon, and that detaining him was likely unconstitutional.

Earlier this year, another Baton Rouge federal judge ordered four men released on similar grounds.

In letters to Sen. John Cassidy and Reps. Cleo Fields, Mike Johnson and Julia Letlow, Landry wrote Thursday that moving West Feliciana Parish, including the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, to the Western District would "improve judicial efficiency" and "better address public safety." He did not mention the recent court decisions.

Obama appointed Dick and Judges John deGravelles and Brian Jackson to the Baton Rouge court. Trump appointed five of the Western District's seven active judges. Including senior judges, those appointed by Republican presidents hold nine of the 13 posts in the Western District.

Landry said that population growth in the Middle District — Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana parishes — has resulted in an explosion of court cases. The Angola prison holds more than 4,000 inmates, he said.

Using the pandemic year of 2020 as his base, Landry said the number of cases in the Middle District has risen 35 percent.

Since 2010, the population in the Middle District has risen 9 percent, from 802,000 to almost 874,000. In West Feliciana Parish, the population has dropped 5 percent, from 15,625 to 14,811 in 2024.

Landry's office did not respond to a call seeking comment. 

The body of the letters read as follows: