
	New Orleans Mayor Rejected In Bid For Third Term Mayor Marc Morial, who launched the first in a string of politically motivated municipal lawsuits against the firearm industry, has failed in his effort to change the city’s charter and repeal term limits so he could run for a third term. Morial outspent his opponents 10-1, and dumped $1.3 million into a special referendum campaign, but New Orleans voters clearly rejected the outspoken mayor by a 61-39 percent margin. According to the Times-Picayune newspaper, “The margin of defeat was even more resounding than many political experts had predicted.” Morial made national headlines in 1998 by filing the first municipal lawsuit against the firearm industry that sought to mandate the way firearms were made and marketed. Declaring that he was going to hold gun makers “accountable” for firearm violence, and that the industry’s “day of atonement” had arrived, Morial actively urged other city and state governments to join in a nationwide litigation campaign. The Louisiana legislature subsequently passed a law barring such suits, saying the regulation of firearms was a state matter and that Morial had overstepped his authority. The mayor appealed, and the State Supreme Court dismissed his lawsuit last April. Morial then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it, in turn, refused to review the case.