NEW ORLEANS tm—The Louisiana Supreme Court met today to hear arguments on whether a Feb. 21 ,second primary should be held in the race for attorney general and agriculture commissidner.
The controversy is expected to be decided within 24 hours after the issue is submitted to the court.
The high court yesterday by a 6.1 vote called up the case from the Baton Rouge district court at the request of Attorney General Fred LeBlanc and Agriculture Commissioner Dave Pearce.
Both filed identical suits after the Democratic State Central Committee, at the urging of incoming Gov. Earl Long, declared Jack Gremillion the party nominee for the attorney general post and Sidney McCrory for the agriculture post.
Long won the governor's race with a clear majority in the Jan. 17 first primary. While Gremillion and McCrory led their races, they failed to receive a majority of the votes.
The committee action interpreted a 1940 law and 1944 amendment to mean that if the governor candidate won in the first primary, runoffs were not needed for the other state offices.
Pearce and LeBlanc, who ran second in their races, contended the 1944 amendment was passed to clarify the original law and spell out the necessity of a second primary.
District Judge Caldwell in Baton Rouge has signed an order restraining the secretary of state and state central committee from carrying out the committee decision.
National committeeman Camille Gravel and Judge Edmund Reggie of Crowley, counsel for the Long candidates, filed a similar motion with the high court asking that the case be called up from the district court.
Both sides claimed the case must be settled quickly to allow time for appeals and preparation of ballots if a second primary is to be held.
Associate Justice E. Howard Mc-Caleb dissented in calling the case up, contending 'the jurisdiction of a court should not be ousted on the theory that the exigencies of the time do not permit a trial."
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