Chief Judge John Michael Guidry, a Democrat, announces his candidacy for election to the District 2 Seat on the Louisiana Supreme Court.
Chief Judge Guidry has served as an appellate court judge on the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal for 26 years. On January 1, 2023, he made history when he became the 15th Chief Judge of the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeal and the first African American to hold that position in the more than 100-year history of the court.
Prior to his election to the appellate court, Chief Judge Guidry served as a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate. Chief Judge Guidry is also a former commissioner on the Greater Baton Rouge Port Commission and the Greater Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport Commission. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Southern University Law Center and formerly served as an adjunct professor with the Nelson Mandela School of Public Policy on the Baton Rouge Campus of Southern University.
Chief Judge Guidry is a member of the Council of Chief Judges of the State Courts of Appeal (where he serves as Secretary/Treasurer and Chairman of the Finance Committee), the American and National Bar Associations, the Louisiana Judicial Council of the National Bar Association (where he sits on the Executive Committee), and the American Judges Association. He formerly served as the representative to the Louisiana Judicial Council for the Louisiana Conference of Court of Appeal Judges and was appointed twice by the Louisiana Supreme Court, on the recommendation of its Chief Justice, to serve on the governing body of the Louisiana Judicial College. He is also a member of the Louisiana Domestic Violence Judicial Curriculum Advisory Committee and a member of the Baton Rouge Bar Association Pro Bono Committee.
Chief Judge Guidry obtained his juris doctorate degree, graduating cum laude, from the Southern University Law Center in 1987. He is also a graduate of LSU, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science in 1983.
Chief Judge Guidry, 62, is married to the former Carol Fowler of Maringouin, Louisiana, with whom he has a son, John Morgan, and a daughter, Kennedy Michelle. He is
also an ordained deacon and the former Sunday School Superintendent at Fairview Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.