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Usually when a judge declines to run for re-election, creating an open seat it is a direct slight to the Governor. There are several circuits not happy with Sonny right now for his recent appointment choices (or the names on the short list) so many judges are hanging on until their terms end rather than worry that Sonny is going to continue to put incompetent, political pay-backs on the bench. Many of these places only have 3-6 judges so it’s a tight group, not usually too happy to have light-weight outsiders brought into the fold.

This will be interesting in that Sonny will have appointed 2 of the 7 GA Supreme Court Justices. The last time he had a vacancy, he appointed his own personal lawyer – Harold Melton – to the court. I’m thinking that Robert Hightower, who was once a rumored favorite to run for AG, might be the choice.

I dunno, maybe because she has a judicial philosophy that Perdue clearly does not share…

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So she should sacrifice the best timing for her just to create an opportunity for some relative unknown with unpredictable political views whose name likely appears on the first page of the bar directory? I don’t see the point. 18 months is a long time to sacrifice just to spite Purdue.

I mean, who really knows who we are electing to Court of Appeals? Mostly middle to high grade political junkies and lawyers. That leaves quite a large portion of the state picking a Judge without much knowledge on the matter.

Dash – you pose this question: “Why should Justice Sears put up with all of that for an additional 18 months just to force an open seat election when she sees that much greener pastures await?”

I dunno, maybe because she has a judicial philosophy that Perdue clearly does not share…

I must say that I’m surprised that she would choose to have lame-duck Sonny appoint a successor rather than serving out the term. Odd choice.

She sucks enough on the Georgia court, I would undertake all efforts to keep her from doing any real harm as a justice on SCOTUS. She had no accomplishments as an attorney, and Zell put her on there based on race and gender alone.

A whole lot of Zell’s appointments at the trial court level were based on race and gender, and virtually all of them suck. They were all too young and inexperienced, and the attorneys that appear before them and the clients that pay the attorneys to appear have suffered for those poor appointments.

It is not inconsistent, but it may be incorrect. As stated, it says that she will leave the court when she is no longer Chief Justice, and obviously will not be running for re-election for her term that expires in Dec 2010. (i.e. it will be vacant from the day her role as Chief expires).

“Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears announced today that she will leave the Supreme Court of Georgia on June 30, 2009, when her term as Chief comes to an end. She will not seek reelection when her six-year term as a justice ends Dec. 31, 2010.”

However, I read it to mean that she will no longer be Chief on June 30, 2009, and will serve the remainder of her term retiring on Dec. 31, 2010.

Hopefully we’ll get some clarification about her intent later today.

However, I thought this was an elected position. If she resigns mid-term does the Gov get to pick the replacement vs the voters? Given the Trend-to-Blue I’d think she’d take her chances the voters would elect a more liberal judge than Sonny would appoint.

Of course, Sonny is hardly conservative so she might be going with the Democrat she Knows vs taking her chances with the electorate.