WAYNESBORO, Ga. (AP) - A court has ruled that Gov. Brian Kemp legally appointed a former state senator as a superior court judge, rejecting a lawsuit by an attorney who said there should have been an election and that Kemp waited too long.
Senior Judge Michael Karpf ruled Thursday that Jesse Stone can remain a judge in the Augusta Judicial Circuit.
Former judge Michael Annis retired in Febuary 2020, but the Republican governor didn’t name Stone to the bench until Feb. 21 of this year.
Lawyer Maureen Floyd filed suit in Burke County claiming that Kemp had waited too long because Annis’ term expired at the end of 2020.
Karpf ruled that Kemp had not violated the state constitution’s requirement that Kemp fill the vacancy “promptly” and wrote that it didn’t matter that Annis’ term had run out because previous caselaw stated that judicial terms of office are eliminated when judges resign.
The judge also rejected Floyd’s claims that Kemp manipulated the appointment process to give Stone a longer period in office before he had to face voters.
Karpf noted that Stone will face voters in a nonpartisan election next year, the same time he would have gone before voters even if Kemp had appointed him in February 2020, because state law requires at least a six-month delay before an appointed judge faces voters. Judicial elections generally take place in May, not on the November ballot that includes partisan elected officials.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled last year that Kemp had not violated state law when he appointed a successor to resigning Justice Keith Blackwell. The justice announced his resignation in February, but did not make it effective until Nov. 18, six weeks before his term expired. The decision prompted heated dissents that said it invited abuse of the system by letting judges resign late in their terms without a competitive election to replace them. Sitting judges rarely lose election bids in Georgia.
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