(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied an emergency request by two defeated candidates for Georgia Supreme Court to overturn a decision that allowed the state’s judicial regulators to make public accusations against them the day before voters went to the polls.
Attorneys for Jen Jordan and Miracle Rankin asked the Supreme Court to vacate a stay issued by a lower appeals court allowing the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission – the watchdog agency that investigates and regulates judges – to reveal accusations against them from a complaint filed in April.
The complaint to the watchdog agency accused Rankin and Jordan of violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct with statements they made on abortion rights during the campaign. A second accusation said they violated a rule that bars candidates from endorsing each other after they appeared together in campaign ads.
Jordan and Rankin filed a case under seal challenging the complaints, saying they violated their First and 14th amendment rights. In ensuing litigation kept out of public view, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit had barred the Judicial Qualifications Commission from issuing a public statement about the allegations.
The stay, which they sought to vacate, had lifted that temporary restraining order – allowing the accusations to be made public the day before the election.
In the emergency request last week, the candidates asked 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. The order denying their request was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.
Tate told The Center Square that the decision shows it to be an important First Amendment case.
“This decision only related to the emergency application for relief,” Tate said. “We will continue to litigate the underlying issue in the trial court and all the way back up to the Supreme Court if necessary.”
Chuck Boring, an attorney for the Judicial Qualifications Commission, told The Center Square that his client “is going to do its constitutionally, statutorily-mandated job as we litigate this.”
“We’re going to stick to the record and make our arguments in court where there are actually rules and referees,” Boring said.
Rankin lost her contest, receiving nearly 49% of the vote to incumbent Georgia Supreme Court Justice Charlie Bethel’s 51%. Incumbent Justice Sarah Warren defeated Jordan with 59% of votes cast to Jordan’s nearly 41%, according to election results.