GA top court chief to step down

The state’s first black female to head Georgia Supreme Court has announced she will step down next year as her term ends. Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears has served on the Georgia Supreme Court since 1992. She said she will instead seek jobs in the private sector, perhaps as a university president or at a civil rights law firm. Sears has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee and did not rule out an eventual return to the public sector. She won re-election three times becoming the first woman to win statewide election in Georgia. Sears has won accolades for presiding over one of the more productive state appellate courts in the nation.

(Associated Press)