Hunstein Sworn in As New Supreme Court Chief Justice

Justices Carol Hunstein and George Carley await investiture
as Chief Justice and Presiding Justice, respectively. (Photo: V Edwards)

Investiture of Chief Justice Carol Hunstein by
former Governor Zell Miller. (Photo: V Edwards)

Former DeKalb County Superior Court Judge Carol Hunstein was sworn in today as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. Former Governor Zell Miller presided over the investiture.

Hunstein was chosen by Miller in 1992 to become the second woman to serve on Georgia's Supreme Court. She succeeds outgoing Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who retired in June.

As the state's revenues continue to decline, and following a recent move by Governor Sonny Perdue to slash the judiciary's budget, the new chief justice says she will make funding the state's courts one of her top priorities.

"I plan to sit down with the Governor and with other leaders very, very soon and explain the constitutional duty of our court system. The citizens of this state deserve to have access to their courts. I am very, very confident that we will be able to work amiably together to resolve the problems."

The Chief Justice presides over Georgia's judicial branch, just as the governor heads the executive branch of government. The Presiding Justice serves in her absence.

And, associate justice George Carley was also sworn in today to succeed Hunstein as presiding judge. Former Governor Miller appointed Carley to the state’s highest court in 1993.

Judge Says Budget Cuts Could Deny Justice

The state's next top chief justice is warning that more budget cuts to the judicial branch would mean more delays in an array of legal cases. Justice Carol Hunstein said Tuesday it is crucial for the courts to have the financial resources to operate efficiently. Hunstein said the adage "justice delayed is justice denied" is apt. She said justice is being denied to some residents because of the sharp budget cuts. Hunstein takes over as Georgia's top judge on July 1. Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears is stepping down at the end of this month.

(Associated Press)

Hunstein to Replace Sears on Top Court

Presiding Justice Carol W. Hunstein has been unanimously elected as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. She will assume the position July 1, 2009, succeeding Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who is stepping down from the Court June 30.

The Court has also unanimously elected Justice George H. Carley to become the new Presiding Justice.

Former Gov. Zell Miller – who appointed both Justices to the Supreme Court – will swear them into their new positions in a ceremony in the state Supreme Court courtroom on July 1, 2009.

The state's Chief Justice presides over Georgia's judicial branch, just as the governor heads the executive branch of government, and House and Senate leaders lead the legislative branch. The Presiding Justice serves in her absence. The Chief Justice is the main spokesperson for the Court, as well as for the entire judiciary. She presides over oral arguments and runs the meetings in which the Court makes its decisions, although she has only one vote as does each of the Justices.

The Chief Justice, who is eligible to serve two two-year terms, also chairs the Georgia Judicial Council, which governs all levels of the state's courts.

Justice Hunstein was a DeKalb County Superior Court Judge when Gov. Miller tapped her in 1992 to become the second woman in history to serve on Georgia's Supreme Court. She was the first woman to serve as President of the Council of Superior Court Judges. In 1989, then Chief Justice Thomas Marshall appointed her to chair the Georgia Commission on Gender Bias in the Judicial System. Gov. Miller and later Gov. Roy Barnes appointed her three times to chair the state's commission on child support guidelines in 1993, 1998 and 2001. She has served on the advisory board of several organizations, including the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention, and she currently chairs the Georgia Commission on Access and Fairness.

Justice Hunstein has received many honors, including an honorary LL.D. from Stetson University College of Law where she received her juris doctor in 1976. She has three grown children and a grandson.

Justice Carley served in the Georgia House of Representatives and spent 14 years on the Georgia Court of Appeals, including as Chief Judge, before Gov. Miller appointed him to the state's high court in 1993. He received his LL.B. degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1962 and practiced law in Decatur where he was a partner in the firm of McCurdy & Candler. He also served as the attorney for the Housing Authority of the City of Decatur and as a Special Assistant Attorney General handling eminent domain cases for the state Department of Transportation. Since 1988, Justice Carley has been actively involved with the Georgia and National High School Mock Trial Competitions.

Source: GA Supreme Court Communications

Perdue, Sears Compromise on Budget

Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears and Gov. Sonny Perdue have reached a compromise on his demand to reduce the judicial branch’s budget by 25 percent.

The Governor has agreed to withdraw his demand, while the Chief Justice and the state’s judges have agreed to withhold 25 percent from their June budget allotment by deferring some current obligations and expenses until the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The understanding is that some of those expenses would then be requested during the Fiscal Year 2010 Amended Budget process.

"I know that we are both confident in the strength of our legal positions," the Chief Justice wrote in a letter delivered today to the Governor. "But I also know that as public servants our primary mandate is to do all we can on behalf of this state we both love so much."

In her letter, Chief Justice Sears thanks the governor “for your willingness to work with me in a way that constructively addresses a very real fiscal problem while avoiding an equally important constitutional dilemma. It is my hope that our state will be better off with this compromise.”

(Source: GA Supreme Court)

Georgia Gazette Friday, June 5, 2009

Join host Rickey Bevington tonight for Georgia Gazette. On tonight's show... The state's top judges decide whether to sue Gov. Sonny Perdue over court funding. And, as Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears retires, how a Republican replacement could reshape the court. Where you can view Monet's water lilies. We find out how Georgia public school students performed on standardized tests. Plus, Athens band The Curdory Road has found a following in a town already filled with big-name acts. These stories and more tonight on Georgia Gazette at 6, 7 in Athens, re-broadcast at 11, hear our show any time at www.gpb.org/georgiagazette , and download a free podcast on iTunes.

Budget Cuts Threaten Superior Courts

Leaders of Georgia's judicial branch are arguing it should be exempt from deep cuts ordered this week by Gov. Sonny Perdue. The Council of Superior Courts said Friday that it should be immune from Gov. Sonny Perdue's decision to slash the funding for state agencies by 25 percent in June amid falling tax collections. Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears called such a move "unconstitutional" in a letter she sent Thursday to Perdue. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland, who is the council's president, warned state budget officials that such a move could shut down superior courts across the state for two weeks.

(Associated Press)

State's Top Judge to Teach, Practice Law

Earlier this year, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears announced she'll step down from the state's highest court when her terms expires in June. Sears joined the Georgia Supreme Court in 1992. She was appointed to lead the court in the summer of 2005 and went on to create the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on Children, Marriage and Family Law. The nation's first African American female Chief Justice will return to practicing law when her current term expires. Sears will join the Atlanta law offices of Chicago-based Schiff Hardin sometime later this year. In the meantime, Sears will teach a seminar titled "Contemporary Issues in Family Law" at the University of Georgia law school, focused on changes in marriage and divorce, and exploring controversial family issues facing the legal system. Finally, in addition to practicing law and teaching, Sears will join the Institute for American Values to serve for one year as the William Thomas Sears Distinguished Fellow in Family Law. The fellowship is named in honor of the chief justice's older brother who died in November 2007 at the age of 53. Recently, Sears' name has come up as a possible replacement to retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter.

Georgia Justice Popular as Possible Souter Replacement

Georgia Supreme court chief justice Leah Ward Sears is ranked 3^rd in an online poll on "who should replace Justice David Souter?"

The poll is part of The New York Times on-line edition. It shows Sears just behind Elena Kegan and Sonia Sotomayor.

Readers have 25 total choices. Sears office says she is not commenting on speculations that she might be considered for the nation’s highest court.

Sears who grew up in Savannah holds the distinction of being the first woman, the first black woman and the youngest person to serve on the Georgia Supreme court. She holds a law degree from Emory University.

GA Chief Justice Sears Gives Final State of the Judiciary System Address

After serving on the Georgia Supreme Court for the last 17 years, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears gave her final State of the Judiciary System address Wednesday at the State Capitol. The last five years Sears has been the chief justice and she’s retiring from that post in June.

She told lawmakers the court has made great strides in recent years.

“...When I step down, I will leave behind – according to a recent national study – the number one most productive Supreme Court in the country. That same study ranked Georgia’s high court as one of the five best state Supreme Courts in the nation...”

But, Sears says, she hasn’t been able to accomplish all of her goals.

“I suppose my failure as Chief Justice was my inability to get our state’s judges a much-needed raise – a raise they have not had in more than a decade.”

Sears says she doesn’t know what she’ll be doing once she retires from the court, but according to the Law School at the University of Maryland, she may become their next dean.

Families, children focus of Atlanta confab

Keeping families together and kids out of the state's courtrooms was the focus of a two-day workshop underway in Atlanta earlier today. Governor Sonny Perdue addressed the group at the start of the conference. Quoting statistics from a University of Chicago study, Perdue says the breakdown of the traditional family is tied to rising juvenile delinquency rates.

"You look at so many of the problems in our society, the ones we see in schools, in courtrooms, and you can trace those problems to the family or rather more specifically to the breakdown of the American family. On a societal level, you get truancy, high school drops outs, substance abuse and crime."

Georgia's top judge -- Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears -- created the Summit on Children, Marriage and Family, bringing together social workers, family court judges and lawyers from around the nation.

"All I'm trying to do and all this summit is trying to do is involve government at the outset on a minimal basis to enhance this not wholly private institution so that doesn't government doesn't have to end up being the third parent in so many of our families."

Sears hopes the group will help shape public policy -- a sentiment echoed by Governor Perdue. One major issue is absentee fathers.

"Our fathers are becoming less engaged from their families, either through divorce or as a result of families that never really take hold and the fathers drift apart. But children need both a mother and father with them, and they need both of those parents with them, preferably in their homes, that is not always possible, and I know that but we need to do a better job."

The final day of the conference will examine what experts call a crisis in the African American community ... the sharply declining rate of traditional marriages.

Georgia's top judge to step down

Georgia’s top judge will step-down from her post next year when her term ends. Leah Ward Sears says she will focus on jobs in the private sector--perhaps taking the reigns as a university president or a role at a civil rights law firm. The 53-year-old Sears has served on Georgia’s Supreme Court since 1992, and is the first black female to lead the court. Sears has been mentioned as a potential U.S. Supreme Court nominee, and doesn’t rule out an eventual return to the public sector.

Georgia chief justice to pay ethics fines

$3,100 will be paid by Georgia’s top judge for violation of state ethics laws. The fines to be paid by Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears are part of a pair of consent orders approved by the state Ethics Commission on Thursday.

The ethics complaints come from her 2004 re-election campaign. The charges included Sears taking contributions above the state’s 5-thousand dollar legal limit--including one of 20-thousand from a law firm. Sears also admitted to some misreporting of campaign finance information.

In other decisions by the Ethics Commission: It found probable cause to look into an parts of an ethics complaint against former Democratic candidate for governor Cathy Cox. The charges involve her 2001 re-election for Secretary of State.