Georgians to decide court’s tone and temperament next month

Any Georgian with a television, mailbox, telephone, or social media account is aware we have partisan primaries coming up. The ads for candidates who want to be the next Governor alone are inescapable. 

We also have to select candidates for U.S. Senate, all Georgia’s seats in the U.S. House, Lieutenant Governor, Quite a few statewide offices, every seat in the Georgia legislature, and even more offices in counties across the state. We’ve got a lot going on in here.

Almost lost in the campaign drum beats are the races for positions within Georgia’s judiciary.  These contests are non-partisan. There are no primaries. We vote on who will preside over Georgia’s courts on the same ballots when we vote for our parties’ nominees.  Those who wish to remain truly “independent” can even request a non-partisan ballot to only select from the Justices and Judges up for election this year.

These aren’t nominees to appear on our November ballots. The May race for these positions is final.

Most Georgians are likely unaware these contests are even happening. There’s little incentive to donate to campaigns, as the Judges and Justices aren’t allowed to make many promises, and certainly can’t promise to decide in favor of potential large donors. Their code of ethics, whether an incumbent or challenger, mostly limits them to saying they’ll be fair and impartial, uphold the Constitution, and telling you about their resume and background. 

They don’t attack each other. There are few soundbites for media to cover. The few dedicated political reporters left in the state are getting a steady supply of red meat zingers from the partisan contests. There’s little reward for them to invest the time detailing the curriculum vitae of candidates that few Georgians have ever heard of, in election contests that won’t generate clicks or ratings.

So what are Georgians supposed to do when faced with these names in races they haven’t researched and know almost nothing of the candidates? Unlike the default position for most voters in partisan contests, if in doubt vote for the incumbent.  

For decades, Georgia has used a system that takes most of the partisan politics out of the selection of our Judges and Justices. When one resigns or retires – usually done mid-term to preserve this process – a Judicial Nominating Commission reviews qualifications of applicants and delivers a short list of candidates to the Governor, who chooses one and appoints them to fill the vacancy.  

Our “election” of Judges and Justices is more of a ratification of this process rather than a selection. This is a system that has been in place in Georgia for decades, long before parties switched power in the Governor’s mansion a quarter century ago.  

The concept worth protecting here is that there is a time and place for partisanship, and the voters get their say on that in November, when nominees from each party are decided by voters. Those elected then serve to write our laws with a partisan tilt in the legislature, and the executive branch administers the state’s operations similarly.

Our courts, however, have to interpret the laws according to the constitutions of both the state and the country. For them to be fair and impartial, they almost must be non-partisan. It’s the only way they can be a proper check and balance within a state that has been governed by one majority party controlling the other two branches at the same time for most of the state’s existence. 

There have been partisan attempts to change the courts a few times. Most notably, Republicans tried to unseat a few Justices as the party was taking statewide elective offices from the Democrats around the turn of the millennium. 

Most if not all failed, and usually by a large margin. Despite the lack of general public awareness from traditional campaign channels, the legal community seems to have a way of policing these elections to motivate voters to preserve the system and keep partisanship out of these elections.

This year there are three challenges to those serving in our top courts.  Two Justices on Georgia’s Supreme Court and one for Georgia’s Court of Appeals. At least one of the challengers has run state wide for a partisan office. 

The best sign that partisanship isn’t at play with the incumbents is the steering committee of Justice Charlie Bethel.  Among the high profile and politically diverse names supporting his re-election are the Governor who appointed him, Nathan Deal, and Deal’s 2014 Democratic challenger, former State Senator Jason Carter. 

As a disclosure, Justice Bethel and I have a friendship that pre-dates his time on our highest court, and I’ve made a small donation to his campaign. I use him as an example of the three incumbents standing for re-election statewide – including fellow Supreme Court Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren and Appeals Court Judge Elizabeth Gobeil – as his committee embodies the entire point here.

There’s a time and place for partisanship, and many of the names on his team are highly partisan. When it comes time to stand before a judge, however, justice must be colorblind. Those colors must include red and blue.