Maurice Edwin "Moon" Landrieu graduated from Loyola University's College of the Arts and Sciences and Loyola School of Law. He served in the U.S. Army for three years before opening up his own law practice and teaching accounting at Loyola.

Landrieu was a city councilman of New Orleans and later became its mayor. President Jimmy Carter appointed him secretary of housing and urban development, and he served from 1979 to 1981. Landrieu later became a judge for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in 1991. He retired in 2000.