Changes
/* Judicial record */
In 2017, [[plaintiff]]s James Wheat and Danny Brinson after their arrests in Bossier City for violating a state statute forbidding panhandling, filled a [[class action]] lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against Bossier Parish Sheriff [[Julian Whittington]] and all judges of the 26th Judicial District Court, including Chief Judge Self. The two men allege that Bossier Parish unjustly jails defendants who cannot pay for [[bail]] or a required $40 fee to the office of the [[public defender]]. Nor does Bossier Parish permit defendants to seek a lowering of the bail amount, which is automatically set by the court. The suit claims that the parish has for years violated a "bedrock principle of our legal system that a person cannot be detained or imprisoned solely for their inability to pay a fee. Such an [[incarceration]] violates the [[substantive due process]] and [[Equal Protection Clause|equal protection]] clauses of the [[United States Constitution|Constitution]].”<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/2017/03/21/lawsuit-claims-violation-constitutional-rights-impoverished/99467604/|title=Lawsuit: Bossier Parish routinely violates rights of poor|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|author=Sarah Crawford|date=March 21, 2017|accessdate=June 10, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=
http://ksla.images.worldnow.com/library/4fcc84a0-2727-4274-9bd8-a676452413e8.pdf|title=''James M. Wheat and Danny Brinson v. Judges Mike Craig, Jeff R. Thomposn, Jeff Cox, E. [[Charles Jacobs]], [[Mike Nerren]], and Parker Self and Sheriff Julian Whittington''|publisher=KSLA Images|date=March 20, 2017|accessdate=June 11, 2017}}</ref>
In 2015, Self became senior judge on the court in 2015. His colleagues include [[Jeff R. Thompson]], [[Charles Jacobs]], Mike Nerren, Michael Craig, and [[Lane Pittard]], who won the special election in October 2017 to succeed Jeffrey Stephen Cox, who was elevated to the Second Circuit Court of Appeal. Self and fellow Republicans Nerren, Craig, and Cox were all unopposed in the nonpartisan blanket primary held on November 4, 2014. Jacobs ran without opposition to succeed John M. Robinson; Thompson to succeed Ford Edwards Stinson, Jr.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2014/08/20/desoto-da-minden-mayor-candidates-qualify/14331543/|title=Final day of qualifying in DeSoto, Webster|author=Vickie Welborn|publisher=''The Shreveport Times''|accessdate=August 22, 2014}}</ref>
