The Georgia Supreme Court has ended an attorney’s attempt to remove a governor-appointed judge for allegedly taking the governor too long to appoint.
Virtual hearing at Georgia Supreme Court: Floyd v. Stone. (Photo courtesy)
Senior Judge Michael Karpf had also filed a lawsuit by Augusta Attorney Maureen O. Floyd alleging that Gov. Brian Kemp illegally seated former R-Waynesboro state senator Jesse C. Stone on the bench of the Augusta Judicial Circuit Superior Court appointed.
And eight out of nine judges agreed that the trial court judge was right. Judge Charlie Bethel did not attend.
“It is the general rule that remedies should be tailored to the harm suffered as a result of the violation of the Constitution and should not unnecessarily harm competing interests,” the statement said. “The removal of Judge Stone – who Floyd does not allege is in any way personally ineligible to hold office – would simply create another vacancy in office for the governor to then fill by agreement.”
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The debate follows Kemp’s February appointment of Stone to fill a vacancy created by the resignation of former judge Michael Annis a year earlier in February 2020.
Floyd filed a lawsuit in Burke County to contest the appointment. She argued that since Annis’ term expired at the end of 2020, his seat should have been up for election rather than appointment.
Rather than making an appointment “promptly,” as required by the Georgia Constitution’s nominee clause, Floyd argued that the governor chose to wait more than a year before appointing Stone, but did so outside of Annis’ term.
Lee Matthew Stoy Jr., Assistant Attorney General, Georgia Supreme Court Virtual Hearing: Floyd v. Stone. (Photo courtesy)
Assistant Attorney General Lee M. Stoy Jr. represented Stone on appeal but declined to comment on Tuesday’s Supreme Court ruling.
Back in September, Stoy poked holes in Floyd’s bid to unseat Stone and call a special election to replace him. He argued that the governor’s alleged lack of promptness in making the appointment “really doesn’t matter” since the complainants “can’t fill a vacancy by election, which is what they aspire to.”
“You have to have that appointment filled by the governor,” Stoy said during the Sept. 23 hearing. “If they were genuinely concerned about the time it took the governor to fill that appointment, then they should have filed a Mandamus lawsuit, and before that appointment was made.”
The lawyers on the other side of the aisle also remained taciturn after the verdict on Tuesday.
“Did void these judgeships”
Virtual hearing at Georgia Supreme Court: Floyd v. Stone. (Photo courtesy)
Samuel A. Emas and Joseph T. Rhodes represented Floyd on appeal but did not respond to a request for comment. During previous hearings in the Georgia Supreme Court, Emas argued, “The delay in making these appointments invalidated those judgeships.”
“The constitution still requires it [the governor] fills vacancies promptly and we would argue that he did not do so promptly.”
Like the trial court judge, the Georgia Supreme Court justices disagreed.
“Prejudicing whether the delay of just over a year in the appointment of Justice Stone violated that requirement, the appropriate remedy for that constitutional violation would not be the removal of Justice Stone,” the statement said. “Accordingly, we affirm the trial court’s ruling, which grants Judge Stone’s motion to dismiss and denies Floyd permission to file quo warranto-type information.”
Read the opinion
