(The Center Square) – Miracle Rankin and Jen Auer Jordan lost their bids to unseat Georgia Supreme Court Justices Charlie Bethel and Sarah Hawkins Warren but a court battle over their campaign will continue in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bethel retained his seat on the court with a close race with Rankin, winning more than 51% of the vote to Rankin’s nearly 49%. Warren defeated Jordan with 59% of the votes cast to Jordan’s nearly 41%, according to election results.
The nonpartisan race became contentious on the campaign trail as Republicans accused Rankin and Jordan of being partisan based on statements they made about Georgia’s abortion laws.
A complaint filed in April with the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission accused Rankin and Jordan of violating the state’s Code of Judicial Conduct with those statements. A second accusation said they violated a rule that bars candidates from endorsing each other after they appeared together in campaign ads.
Both were endorsed by former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats.
Rankin and Jordan filed a federal lawsuit, saying the rules violated their First and 14th Amendment rights. The lawsuit was initially sealed, but the contents became public on Monday.
Rankin and Jordan filed an emergency application Monday evening with the U.S. Supreme Court after the Special Committee on Judicial Election Campaign Intervention issued a public statement on Monday accusing the two of violating the code. Even though the election is over, 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.
Chuck Boring, an attorney for the Judicial Qualifications Commission, told The Center Square that his client will present its arguments to the court.
“Of course, the JQC is going to do its constiutionally, statutorially mandadated job as we litigate this,” Boring said. “We’re going to stick to the record and make our arguments in court where they’re actually rules and referrees.”
The filing asks the court for a response by Saturday. As of Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court had not taken any action on the case.
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.”