The U.S. Supreme Court has quietly shut the door on New Orleans attorney Richard Trahant’s last big appeal, leaving him tagged with a $400,000 sanction tied to his effort to alert a Catholic high school about a priest with a troubled record. Trahant, who represents dozens of abuse survivors in the local archdiocese’s bankruptcy, insists he was trying to protect students. The legal slugfest around his actions has unfolded alongside years of tense settlement talks over clergy abuse.
In a brief notice on Monday, the justices declined to review Trahant’s petition, which he filed in early May, according to The Guardian. That outlet also reports that attorneys for the Archdiocese of New Orleans waived their right to respond and that a sealed investigative file tied to the sanction drew fresh scrutiny after earlier local coverage.
Sanction Upheld Through Appeals
The six-figure penalty traces back to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Meredith Grabill’s finding that Trahant violated a protective order after reviewing confidential discovery in the archdiocese case. The judge concluded that Trahant crossed the line when he contacted Brother Martin High School’s principal and separately emailed a reporter. The district court and the Fifth Circuit both upheld the contempt finding and the $400,000 fine, and the appellate opinion lays out the leak investigation timeline and the judge’s rationale in detail. The full procedural history is available through GovInfo.
What Trahant Says He Found
According to Trahant, the sealed church documents he reviewed showed that Father Paul Hart admitted to sexual contact with a 17-year-old in the early 1990s, an admission recorded during an internal church review in 2012. Trahant says he was alarmed to see that Hart later served as a high school chaplain. Local records reflect that Hart stepped down as chaplain at Brother Martin High School in January 2022 and died later that year. A summary of Hart’s history and removal is compiled by BishopAccountability.
Settlement Money And Survivors’ Payments
The dispute over Trahant’s conduct is unfolding inside the Archdiocese of New Orleans’ Chapter 11 reorganization, which the church filed in 2020 to deal with hundreds of abuse claims. The court-approved plan has been described as worth at least $230 million, according to the Associated Press, while later accounting that factors in parish and insurer contributions pegs the total closer to roughly $305 million in a breakdown published by LegalClarity. Survivors were initially told that payments could start in April, but subsequent court filings pushed the expected distributions into the fall.
Some survivors and former committee members who were expelled during the sanction fight reacted with fury to the Supreme Court’s move to stay out of it. James Adams, a removed committee member, told reporters the decision felt like “the protection of sexual predators over the safety of children,” while Jackie Berthelot warned that speaking up about alleged abusers can trigger severe punishment. Those comments were reported by The Guardian and underline just how raw the emotions remain, even as the legal paperwork grinds forward.
Legal Fallout And What Comes Next
Trahant has publicly urged the archdiocese to direct the $400,000 sanction into the survivor compensation pot and has defended his actions as necessary to protect kids, according to local coverage. With the Supreme Court declining to intervene, the contempt ruling and financial hit to Trahant stand as is. For many in New Orleans, the more immediate concern now is when the settlement trust will start cutting checks and rolling out the non-monetary reforms ordered in the bankruptcy plan.
The Fifth Circuit’s reasoning, along with trustee filings that sketch out the next steps, can be found in the appellate record on GovInfo. Local outlet WWL has also chronicled Trahant’s public statements and the reactions from survivors as they wait for both accountability and compensation.
