BATON ROUGE - Governor Edwards announced Monday he is filing a lawsuit defending his public health emergency order after Louisiana lawmakers filed a petition seeking to remove the state's coronavirus regulations. 

Edwards announced during a news conference that he is filing the suit with the 19th Judicial District Court and clarified the state remains in phase 3 after legislators submitted the petition last week. 

You can read the full lawsuit here

On Friday, Republicans invoked a never-before-used process outlined in state law that allows a majority of House lawmakers to nullify the governor’s public health emergency declaration and all restrictions tied to it with a petition.

The petition does not mean any immediate changes to the state's current phase 3 order, and the matter is expected to be settled in court.