Herbert Phipps will be sworn in as the next chief judge of the state Court of Appeals next month, the court announced today.

Phipps’ ascension to the position of chief had been expected. The court’s judges select their own chief but follow a tradition of transferring the chief judge spot by seniority. Phipps was next in line after the current chief, John Ellington. A press release issued by the court today said Phipps’ election to the chief post was unanimous.

Governor Roy Barnes appointed Phipps, Ellington and M. Yvette Miller to the appeals court on the same day in 1999, but by random selection, Phipps was deemed to follow the other two in seniority. Phipps previously had been a judge on magistrate, juvenile, state and superior courts in Dougherty County.

Phipps will be sworn into the new position in a ceremony in the Court of Appeals courtroom on June 25 and will officially take over the job on July 1, the court’s release said. Two years ago,  Phipps swore in Ellington as chief in an unusually low-key investiture held in the court’s banc room.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial columnist Gerald F. Seib notes in a column today that Bondurant Mixson & Elmore partner Jill Pryor – a nominee for the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals – has been waiting 689 days for the U.S. Senate to act on her nomination.

In the column, headlined “Judicial Vacancies Typify Capital Dysfunction,  Seib noted that Pryor shares that distinction with Rosemary Marquez of Arizona, a  nominee to the U.S. District Court in Arizona,  who has waited 689 days for the Senate to act.

Seib’s column notes that 85 federal judgeships sit vacant, about 10 percent of the federal judiciary, and offers that while President Obama must shoulder some of the blame, “The lion’s share of the blame lies with the Senate, a body that’s becoming an embarrassment to itself and that increasingly infects the rest of government with its paralysis.”

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter denied prosecutors’ request for a gag order in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating case Friday, blasting District Attorney Paul Howard and the special investigators he appointed for numerous public statements asserting that former APS Superintendant Beverly Hall and 34 co-defendants had engaged in a massive cheating conspiracy.

“Do ya’ll believe in the concept of presumption of innocence?” Baxter asked Senior Assistant District Attorney Christopher Quinn, who was supporting a motion to bar any attorneys or their clients from discussing the case outside of court.

“These folks have been vilified and tried in the court of public opinion,” said Baxter, “and your office has pretty much led the charge.”

Baxter pointed to an hour-long press conference Howard held when the indictments were announced in March, as well as numerous statements to the press by former Georgia Attorney General Michael Bowers, one of Howards’s specially appointed district attorneys, and asked Quinn why his office was suddenly so concerned about anyone making outside comments on the case.

“It may be very difficult, based on what’s gone on, to find a jury that can give these folks the presumption of innocence,” Baxter said.

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Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot started her term as president on Wednesday. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley is president-elect, and Appalachian Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Weaver is secretary-treasurer. Their terms last until April 30, 2014.

Abbot earned her law degree from the University of Georgia in 1982 and was appointed to superior court in the Eastern Judicial Circuit in October 2000. During the last four years, she was chairwoman of the council’s Uniform Rules Committee and is a past-president of the Savannah Bar Association and the Georgia Bar Foundation.  Governor Nathan Deal reappointed her chairwoman of the Georgia Child Support Commission earlier this year.

Staley, who graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1979, began her legal career as an assistant Cobb County district attorney. She was elected to the Cobb County State Court in 1983 and was elected to superior court in 1992.

Weaver served as an Associate Juvenile Court Judge for the Appalachian Judicial Circuit from 1991 until her appointment as chief judge of the juvenile court in 1995. A year later, she was appointed to the superior court, where she presides over its felony drug court.

Weaver is also an administrative law judge, a member of the Judicial Qualifications Commission and chairwoman of the Council of Superior Court Judges’ Accountability and Treatment Courts Committee. She earned her law degree from the now closed Woodrow Wilson College of Law in 1983.

The three judges will lead the council, which is composed of the state’s 207 superior court judges and more than 70 retired judges, as it assists trial courts with budgeting, legislation, uniform rules, bench publications and continuing judicial education. They also will serve on the Judicial Council of Georgia with representatives from other courts.   Kathleen Baydala Joyner

Governor Nathan Deal named Court of Appeals Judge Lisa Branch a new member of the state’s Commission on Child Support, his office announced today.

The commission arose from executive order in 2005, and its tasks include analyzing child support data, calculating obligation tables, developing training manuals for judges and lawyers and monitoring appellate courts’ acceptance of appeals of domestic relations cases.

State law requires the commission to have 15 members, including an appellate court judge and three superior court judges. Each member serves a four-year-term except state legislators. Deal tapped Branch for the appellate court last July.

Prior to that appointment, she was a litigation partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell. Branch also worked as a senior official in President George W. Bush’s administration and was associate general counsel for rules and legislation at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She earned her law degree from Emory University.

Deal also reappointed five judges and a lawyer to the commission: Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot; part-time Troup County Juvenile Court Judge R. Michael Key; Charles Clay, a partner at Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers; Southwestern Circuit Juvenile Court Judge Lisa Rambo; Coweta Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Quillian Baldwin Jr.; and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Campbell.

Georgia’s Council of Superior Court Judges officially opposes a portion of a bill before the state Senate that would allow licensed gun owners to bring firearms into unguarded courthouses and judicial buildings.

In an interview last week, Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson, who is president of the council, said the council was surprised by the provision after it passed the House of Representatives. Since then, he said today, “Our legislative committee has discussed that, and we are opposed.”

House Bill 512 would ease restrictions on where gun owners with concealed carry permits may bring their firearms. The provision opposed by the superior court judges’ council states that gun owners may carry their guns into government buildings and courthouses “where ingress to such building or courthouse is not restricted or screened by security personnel during the hours the government building or courthouse is open for business.”

The House approved the bill in a 117-56 vote on March 7. The bill is now before the Senate Judiciary Non-Civil Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro, who is a lawyer. Stone could not be reached immediately to respond to the judges’ opposition.

DeKalb County Sheriff Thomas Brown also opposes carry provisions in the bill, known as the Safe Carry Protection Act. “Though named such, this bill is everything but safe for the citizens of this state,” Brown said in a written statement today.

Specifically, Brown pointed to provisions that would allow licensed gun owners to carry guns in government buildings, places of worship, bars and certain school safety zones; allow some individuals who had their  licenses revoked to regain eligibility; and remove fingerprinting requirements for license renewals.

The bill “was passed under an emotional move more than likely resulting from the urging of licensed gun holders with the desire to protect themselves without thinking of all the possible consequences and circumstances,” Brown said.

“In DeKalb, we have had several occasions in which victims, criminal suspects and even those in opposing civil legal positions have argued and even fought,” he added. “The only guns needed for protection of these individuals were the ones carried by my deputies. If those involved in courthouse conflicts possessed weapons, the outcomes would definitely have been different.”

For previous reporting on HB 512, go to http://www.dailyreportonline.com/PubArticleDRO.jsp?id=1202591517466

Crawford County’s chief magistrate judge, who was arrested last week on a felony theft charge and suspended by the state Judicial Qualifications Commission, admitted to agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that she had taken funds from the magistrate court, according to a criminal arrest warrant.

Judge Andrea Peterman also told GBI agents that she used the money she took for personal purchases, including gas and other incidentals, and that she also gave some of the funds to her children, the affidavit stated.

Peterman also told the GBI that whenever she took funds, “she would normally try to replace the money on pay day,” the affidavit said.

Last week, the GBI charged Peterman with fiduciary theft and violating her oath of office, both felonies, after the Macon Circuit district attorney, who also oversees Crawford County, initiated an investigation. Rodney Wall, special agent in charge of the GBI’s Perry office, said that county auditors doing a routine audit of the magistrate’s office began raising questions after they were unable to account for some of the funds.

Peterman is currently free on bond and has been barred from the courthouse while the charges against her are pending. The JQC announced Monday that it was suspending her with pay pending the outcome of the charges.

Neither Peterman nor her attorney, William Phillips, could be reached for comment.

This New York Times opinion piece, in its Sunday Review section, shows how a judge can have a huge impact on a family.

Prior to today’s hearing on the constitutionality of Governor Nathan’s Deal’s suspension of the DeKalb County School Board, U.S. District Judge Richard Story placed the litigants on notice that he expects  documents filed in the case should, as a general rule, not be sealed.

Story entered a standing order that outlines his policy “not to allow the filing of documents under seal, even if all parties consent to filing under seal; this is because documents filed in Court are presumptively public.”

Story’s order makes an exception for documents containing information protected by law from disclosure, personal information such as Social Security numbers, trade secrets or sensitive security data.

The judge’s order also directs anyone who wants to seal a court filing to submit a motion to file under seal, adding that, “The party or parties presenting the motion shall bear the burden of establishing (in the motion) good cause for sealing.”

A motion to seal would have to explain the reasons why sealing a document is necessary, why less drastic alternatives than sealing are not adequate and “address the factors governing sealing of documents reflected in controlling case law,” Story’s order states.

Story’s order also bars litigants from agreeing to “broad protective orders that would allow counsel to designate as confidential documents that will be filed in court without prior judicial review.”

The judge’s order provided for some documents to be designated as confidential “but only after review of the documents by an attorney who has determined in good faith that the documents contain information protected from disclosure by statute; personal information (such as social security numbers); trade secrets [as defined by Georgia law] or sensitive security data.”

The judge also noted in his order that any confidential designation “is subject to challenge,” and “the burden of proving the necessity of a confidential designation remains with the party asserting confidentiality.”

A federal judge in Albany has affirmed the constitutional principle that Georgia courts should be open to the public in a suit
challenging courtroom closures in the Cordele Judicial Circuit.

In a 27-page order, U.S. District Judge Louis Sands refused to dismiss a civil rights case against the circuit’s three judges – John Pridgen, Bobby Chasteen, and T. Christopher Hughes – brought by the Southern Center for Human Rights on behalf of a number of people who said they were barred from attending court hearings in the Ben Hill and Crisp County Law Enforcement Center courtrooms.

The suit claimed that the judges and county sheriffs, who were also named as defendants, systemically barred the public from attending court unless they were related to the defendants who appeared and those defendants were entering guilty pleas.

The judge rejected as “unpersuasive” the arguments put forth by the state attorney general, who is defending the judges. State lawyers argued that the judges were not closing the courts when they restricted access for reasons of space or security. Sands also rejected an argument that the public had no constitutional right to attend arraignments.

“Prohibiting the majority of the public from these proceedings often bars them from observing the entire justice system,” Sands wrote. “To deprive the public [of] the right to attend proceedings during which that process occurs could undermine the public’s faith in the modern criminal justice system.”

Southern Center Senior Counsel Gerald Weber called Sands’ ruling “a “public welcome’ sign for Georgia courtrooms that have presented citizens with untold hoops and hurdles to public access.”

Lauren Kane, a spokeswoman for Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, said the office declined to comment because the matter was still ongoing.

The Daily Report will have a full story on its website late this afternoon.