(The Center Square) – Two Georgia Supreme Court candidates accused of violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct are taking their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
With voters deciding their races on Tuesday, candidates Miracle Rankin and Jennifer Auer Jordan filed an emergency application Monday evening with the U.S. Supreme Court. Having been publicly accused by Georgia’s judicial watchdog of violating state rules the day before the election, they’re asking the nation’s highest court to rule that they did nothing wrong, according to a copy of the appeal provided by their attorney, Lester Tate.
In the appeal, Rankin and Jordan asked the justices to vacate a stay from an appeals court that lifted a temporary restraining order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit barring the state agency from issuing a public statement about them. That statement, by the Georgia Judicial Qualification Commission’s Special Committee on Judicial Election Campaign Intervention, was made public earlier Monday when the appeals court unsealed documents in the case.
Rankin is challenging Justice Charlie Bethel. Jordan is challenging Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren.
A complaint filed with the JQC accused Rankin and Jordan of violating the code with statements they made on abortion. A second accusation said they violated a rule that bars candidates from endorsing each other after they appeared together in campaign ads.
Rankin and Jordan sued the committee on April 30, saying the rules violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The lawsuit was filed under seal but was revealed after Monday’s court action.
“Justice [Antonin] Scalia, one of the more conservative Supreme Court Justices in our history, wrote an opinion in 2022 in which the Republican Party of Minnesota sued because they wanted to talk about issues like abortion and not have the disciplinary authorities come after them,” Tate said Monday in an exclusive interview with The Center Square. “Ever since that opinion, judicial candidates in the United States are free to exercise their First Amendment right to speak on controversial, legal or political issues. And that right was reaffirmed in Kentucky by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals this week.”
As for the joint appearances, Tate said, “What is good for the goose is good for the gander.”
“They never endorsed one another,” Tate said of his clients. “They did run some joint ads and they made some joint appearances. And if you look at social media, you’ll see Gov. [Brian] Kemp with the other two incumbent candidates. One set of rules, another for me seems to be what’s being said these days.”
Georgia is one of 22 states that hold elections to choose state Supreme Court justices and one of 13 that hold nonpartisan races.
“We’ve chosen the system,” Tate said. “And if we’re going to have people run, we have to let them talk about what the issues are.”
Attorney Chuck Boring, representing members of the JQC, did not immediately respond to messages from The Center Square late Monday. Kara Murray, spokeswoman for the Georgia Attorney General’s office, said the state could not comment. The JQC did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.
