LOUISIANA: Invictus?

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The majesty of Louisiana law was District Judge Robert D. Jones, presiding over his court from a dais beneath the folded-up basketball backboard of the Covington (pop. 5,000), La. junior high school gymnasium. Around him, jamming available folding chairs and pressed back against the peeling green walls of the gym, were arrayed more than a thousand sweltering Louisianians—many of them leathery farmers in shirtsleeves, who had arrived before dawn (and had been sustained through the humid hours by soft drinks sold by the ladies of the P.T.A. for the benefit of the junior high encyclopedia fund). At precisely 10:40 a.m. there was a rustle at the rear of the gym and a voice rasped: "Push 'em back! Push 'em back!" Behind a wedge of deputies, to the roar of yells, applause and cheers, Louisiana's embattled Governor, Earl Kemp Long, walked waveringly to a chair next to the judge, acknowledged the ovation with a tight smile and upraised arms and sat down.

Fingering his floppy straw hat, gaunt Earl Long then stared silently, grimly at his lawyer, Joe Arthur Sims. Sims turned to the judge. "Your Honor, I'd like to read some letters."

Succession. Briskly, Attorney Sims intoned the contents of five official letters, worked out only moments before in a back-room huddle with the state board of hospital supervisors. One pair of letters, signed by the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and the state senate president pro tern, announced the discharge of Jesse Bankston, director of state hospitals, and Dr. Charles Belcher, acting director of Southeast Louisiana Hospital, where Earl Long had been committed by his wife Blanche (who by now had fled the state). The second pair of letters announced Long's appointment of two of his oldtime cronies to the jobs. The fifth letter came from Bankston's newly appointed successor, addressed to Belcher's newly appointed successor. The gist: Earl K. Long is sane; he should be released from the mental hospital. Attorney General Jack Gremillion stood up: "Your Honor, there is no one now with authority to hold Earl K. Long at the hospital. The state joins in a motion to discontinue." Judge Jones leaned forward. "Since there is no opposition, the motion [to free the Governor] is granted and the suit is dismissed." The hearing had lasted five minutes.

With the judge's pronouncement came a loud, long cheer from the crowd. Earl Long, smiling thinly, his near-cadaverous hulk worn down from 203 lbs. to 162 lbs., pushed his way through the throng. Voices shouted greetings. Hands clapped his back, shook his hand, reached out from all directions. Flanked by his pals and deputies, he advanced through the tumult to his car. A newsman asked: "What are you going to do now, Governor?" Growled Earl Long: "I'm gonna be Governor."