{"id":2776,"date":"2020-05-21T22:26:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-21T22:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2020-05-21T22:26:17","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T22:26:17","slug":"georgia-republicans-cancel-election-for-state-supreme-court-so-governor-can-appoint-a-republican","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=2776","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Republicans cancel election for state Supreme Court, so governor can appoint a Republican"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“The state of Georgia was supposed to hold an election Tuesday to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court. Justice Keith Blackwell, a Republican whose six-year term expires on the last day of this year, did not plan to run for reelection. The election<\/a>, between former Democratic Rep. John Barrow and former Republican state lawmaker Beth Beskin, would determine who would fill Blackwell\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then something weird happened: Georgia\u2019s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the state\u2019s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, canceled Tuesday\u2019s election. Instead, Kemp will appoint Blackwell\u2019s successor, and that successor will serve for at least two years \u2014 ensuring the seat will remain in Republican hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 14, the state Supreme Court handed down a decision that effectively blessed this scheme to keep Blackwell\u2019s seat in the GOP\u2019s hands. The court\u2019s decision in Barrow v. Raffensperger<\/em><\/a> is unusual in many regards \u2014 among other things, six of the state\u2019s regular Supreme Court justices recused from the case, and they were replaced by five lower court judges<\/a> who sat temporarily on the state\u2019s highest court. The court\u2019s decision in Barrow <\/em>turns upon poorly drafted language in the state constitution, which does suggest that Blackwell, Kemp, and Raffensperger\u2019s scheme was legal.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“In late February, just a few days before the deadline for candidates to file to run to replace Justice Blackwell was about to expire, Blackwell sent a letter to Kemp announcing that he intends to resign his seat, effective November 18<\/a>. That means that Blackwell will leave office a few weeks before his term was set to expire on December 31.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after receiving this letter, Kemp formally accepted Blackwell\u2019s future resignation. The governor then informed Raffensperger, the state\u2019s chief elections officer, that he intended to fill Blackwell\u2019s seat by gubernatorial appointment. In response, Raffensperger canceled the election to fill Blackwell\u2019s seat<\/a>, which was scheduled for May 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Democratic candidate Barrow and Republican candidate Beskin filed lawsuits seeking to reinstate the election, but these pleas were rejected by the state Supreme Court in a 6-2 vote.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“an appointed justice may serve until January 1, 2023 \u2014 and longer, if that justice eventually wins the 2022 election. The new justice will also be able to run with all the advantages incumbency provides<\/a>.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As a practical matter, this decision is likely to prove very easy for retiring justices to game if they belong to the same political party as the incumbent governor. Indeed, under the court\u2019s decision in Barrow<\/em>, Blackwell likely could have announced that he would resign effective December 30 \u2014 just one day before his term would have expired \u2014 and Kemp still would have gained the power to name Blackwell\u2019s replacement.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/5\/19\/21262376\/georgia-republicans-cancel-election-state-supreme-court-barrow-kemp-blackwell<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The state of Georgia was supposed to hold an election Tuesday to fill a seat on the state Supreme Court. Justice Keith Blackwell, a Republican whose six-year term expires on the last day of this year, did not plan to run for reelection. The election, between former Democratic Rep. John Barrow and former Republican state lawmaker Beth Beskin, would determine who would fill Blackwell\u2019s seat.
\nBut then something weird happened: Georgia\u2019s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and the state\u2019s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, canceled Tuesday\u2019s election. Instead, Kemp will appoint Blackwell\u2019s successor, and that successor will serve for at least two years \u2014 ensuring the seat will remain in Republican hands.<\/p>\n

On May 14, the state Supreme Court handed down a decision that effectively blessed this scheme to keep Blackwell\u2019s seat in the GOP\u2019s hands. The court\u2019s decision in Barrow v. Raffensperger is unusual in many regards \u2014 among other things, six of the state\u2019s regular Supreme Court justices recused from the case, and they were replaced by five lower court judges who sat temporarily on the state\u2019s highest court. The court\u2019s decision in Barrow turns upon poorly drafted language in the state constitution, which does suggest that Blackwell, Kemp, and Raffensperger\u2019s scheme was legal.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“In late February, just a few days before the deadline for candidates to file to run to replace Justice Blackwell was about to expire, Blackwell sent a letter to Kemp announcing that he intends to resign his seat, effective November 18. That means that Blackwell will leave office a few weeks before his term was set to expire on December 31.<\/p>\n

Shortly after receiving this letter, Kemp formally accepted Blackwell\u2019s future resignation. The governor then informed Raffensperger, the state\u2019s chief elections officer, that he intended to fill Blackwell\u2019s seat by gubernatorial appointment. In response, Raffensperger canceled the election to fill Blackwell\u2019s seat, which was scheduled for May 19.<\/p>\n

Both Democratic candidate Barrow and Republican candidate Beskin filed lawsuits seeking to reinstate the election, but these pleas were rejected by the state Supreme Court in a 6-2 vote.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“an appointed justice may serve until January 1, 2023 \u2014 and longer, if that justice eventually wins the 2022 election. The new justice will also be able to run with all the advantages incumbency provides.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“As a practical matter, this decision is likely to prove very easy for retiring justices to game if they belong to the same political party as the incumbent governor. Indeed, under the court\u2019s decision in Barrow, Blackwell likely could have announced that he would resign effective December 30 \u2014 just one day before his term would have expired \u2014 and Kemp still would have gained the power to name Blackwell\u2019s replacement.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[790,431,815,816],"class_list":["post-2776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-courts","tag-democracy","tag-georgia","tag-state-supreme-court"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2777,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions\/2777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}