The Louisiana Consitution of 1868 retained and reinstituted the six numbered Orleans Parish district courts created by the Consitutions of 1845 and 1852 and added a new Seventh District Court. The constitution reiterated the exclusive jurisdiction of several of the courts (First District Court, exclusive criminal jurisdiction; Second District Court, exclusive probate jurisdiction; Third District Court, exclusive jurisdiction of appeals from justices of the peace). Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh District Courts were given exclusive jurisdiction in all civil cases, except probate, when the sum in contest was above one hundred dollars, exclusive of interest.

Act 7 of 1868 further ordered that all cases pending in the Third District Court, exclusive of appeals from the justices of the peace, be transfered to the newly created Seventh District Court.

With Act 2 of December 11, 1872, the Louisiana Legislature abolished the Seventh District Court (as well as the Eighth District Court) and created a new, controversial court, the Superior District Court. The act directed that all suits pending in the Seventh District Court that did not fall into the jurisdiction of the Superior District Court be transferred to the Fourth District Court. (The Superior District Court had exclusive jurisdiction over all cases or actions or any appeals from the Justices of the Peace courts that involved in any way "any office, State, parish or municipal" -- including the Board of Metropolitan Police and the Board of School Directors for New Orleans -- or that involved "any corporation established by act of the General Assembly, and domiciled in the parish of Orleans.")