State A.G. challenges LGBT-rights order

Louisiana’s Republican attorney general asked a judge Thursday to block the Democratic governor’s order banning discrimination in state government against LGBT people, in an escalating dispute over the protection language.

In his court challenge, Attorney General Jeff Landry says Gov. John Bel Edwards’ anti-discrimination order violates state law and exceeds the governor’s authority. He’s seeking to have the order declared unconstitutional.

Landry said he filed the petition “so the court may decide if the governor can circumvent the Legislature to create his own law.”

“The governor continues to violate his duty to faithfully execute the laws by legislating through executive fiat,” the attorney general said in a statement.

Edwards didn’t immediately respond.

The two statewide elected officials have clashed repeatedly over the anti-discrimination order Edwards issued in April.