"Dystopian" Loophole for Georgia Judicial Elections Gives Brian Kemp the Last Laugh

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David Weigel Retweeted

There's a WILD situation in Georgia, where judges at risk of losing an election can say they're resigning many months from now—and that cancels the election, pulls the rug out from challengers, & allows the Gov to install a justice while skipping voters!

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"Dystopian" Loophole for Georgia Judicial Elections Gives Brian Kemp the Last Laugh - Bolts
The governor’s supreme court appointees are coasting in this year’s elections, despite a 2020 legal brawl over their selection that had promised increased visibility for the court.

“Dystopian” Loophole for Georgia Judicial Elections Gives Brian Kemp the Last Laugh

The governor’s supreme court appointees are coasting in this year’s elections, despite a 2020 legal brawl over their selection that had promised increased visibility for the court.

Daniel Nichanian | March 21, 2022

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Georgia law already provided a path for state officials to game the rules before 2020. When an appellate court judge resigned within the six months before an already scheduled election for their seat, the governor appointed someone to the seat and the election was postponed to the next cycle. The practice fits into a long nationwide tradition of incumbents tendering suspiciously timed resignations before an election to install a preferred successor and circumvent the will of voters.

But the dynamic dramatically escalated in 2020. Georgia Republicans established that judges do not even have to vacate their seats before their elections to get them canceled. ... Justice Keith Blackwell was set to face Barrow in June when he announced, in the run-up to that election, that he would resign in November, five months after voters were set to decide between Barrow and him. Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger canceled the election as though there was a vacancy, and the state supreme court rejected Barrow’s lawsuit to force an election in a 6-2 ruling.

The pattern has repeated over the past few months. Chief Justice David Nahmias, who wrote the 2020 opinion authorizing this maneuver, and Fulton County Superior Court Chief Judge Christopher Brasher, were meant to be on the ballot in May. Both recently announced that they would retire later this year, after the scheduled election—once again postponing elections and allowing Kemp’s appointments to rule until 2024.

Critics fear the stage has been set for things to get worse. The dissent in the 2020 case warned that nothing in state law seems to prevent judges from rescinding their resignations after the date of a canceled election, leading to a perverse situation where a judge’s promise to vacate their seat could buy them extra years on the bench. The ruling also raised the possibility that, if a justice lost an election and then resigned in the lame-duck period between the election and the end of their term, the governor’s appointment could preempt the election’s result and install a different judge than the election’s winner.

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