The Washington Post’s “The Fact Checker” has given “Three Pinnochios” to a commercial blasting U.S. Rep. John Barrow, a Georgia Democrat, for his ties to the National Rifle Association. The Post said the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence used ”selective editing” to ”distort” a campaign commercial Barrow ran last year during his re-election campaign.

Barrow’s commercial showed him holding a rifle and saying how the weapon helped his grandfather “stop a lynching”–in what the Post said was a novel way to promote his gun-rights bona fides without offending black Democrats. The coalition’s commercial shows some of Barrow’s ad, juxtaposed with news coverage of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

An interesting part of the Post’s analysis is its examination of Barrow’s family history, which includes links to stories about his late father, Judge James Barrow, an Athens judge who “was instrumental in averting the violence that attended the desegregation of other southern universities,” one story said.

The Post said a spokesman for Barrow, himself a Harvard-trained lawyer, declined to discuss the coalition’s criticism of him.

Six candidates, including a lawyer, have qualified for a special election to fill a vacancy in the state House’s 71st District.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, the candidates are Cynthia Conradt Bennett, a 57-year-old educator and Democrat; 45-year-old general contractor Thomas Crymes, a Republican; Michael Farbo Jr., a 57-year-old retiree and Republican; Darryl Marmon, a 48-year-old plaintiffs’ attorney and Republican; David Stover, a 41-year-old business owner and Republican; and 59-year-old real estate broker Richard Weisser, a Republican.

This will be Marmon’s second attempt at winning the district.

The seat was vacated by former Coweta County Solicitor-General Robert Stokely, who beat Marmon last summer in the Republican primary. There was no Democratic candidate in that race.
Stokely announced last month that he would withdraw from the district seat in order to accept an appointment as magistrate judge.

“Recently, Coweta County Magistrate Court Judge Joseph Wyant was appointed to serve as Juvenile Court Judge for Coweta County and that opened an opportunity for me to be appointed to a four-year term full-time to replace him,” Stokely wrote in a letter to the governor and other state leaders on Dec. 14, that he later published on his campaign’s web site. “This opportunity is in the best interest of my family and I hope each of you and the citizens can understand that I need to do what is best for my family in taking this opportunity.”

The New Yorker has a profile of Han von Spakovsky, a former Atlanta insurance in-house counsel and chairman of the Fulton County Republican Party. He then worked for the Bush admistratation and has become a major proponent of voter identification laws. At the end of the story, he predicts, “If we’re lucky,” there will be only three or four states whose presidential election counts will be contested, a la Florida in 2000.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp announced Saturday that he has rejected a finding by an administrative judge that would have barred attorney Clarence Johnson from being on Tuesday’s ballot against Fulton County Superior Court Judge Todd Markle. But Kemp added in a press release that his decision left open the possibility of an investigation into false swearing by Johnson.

The announcement said:

“Secretary Kemp rejected the Administrative Law Judge’s Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and held that Clarence Johnson is eligible to be a candidate for Judge of Superior Court, Atlanta Circuit. … It is important to note that this determination of Clarence Johnson’s eligibility to seek and hold office for Judge of Superior Court, Atlanta Circuit, does not bar a future investigation by the Secretary of State into possible violations of O.C.G.A. §21-2-565 for false swearing or prosecution under O.C.G.A. § 16-10-71 of the Criminal Code of Georgia in connection with Johnson’s actions related to this matter.”

The full decision can be found here.

This piece by the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein outlines the history behind Emmet Bondurant’s fight against Senate filibusters.

Atlanta chef Paul Luna has re-heated his challenge to the city’s private parking contractor, PARKatlanta, which took over Atlanta’s parking operations and enforcement in 2010 in return for up to $5.5 million of whatever it realizes in parking fees every year.

Luna, currently the proprietor of Lunacy Black Market on Mitchell Street and the founding force behind tapas spots Eclipse de Luna and Loca Luna, first sued the city last August. His complaint alleged that he had been ticketed twice for parking on Mitchell by PARKatlanta enforcement officers who had not been appointed by the chief of police, as required by Atlanta’s parking ordinance. (http://www.atlawblog.com/2011/08/famed-local-chef-turning-up-the-heat-on-parkatlanta/)

A Fulton County Superior Court judge threw out the case, agreeing with the city that the Municipal Court judge who presided over Luna’s hearing had not been properly served with the suit and granting Atlanta’s motion to dismiss.

On Tuesday Luna’s attorney, Cory Lynch, served up a fresh complaint similar to the first and based upon the same two tickets, but this one includes certificates of service to Atlanta Solicitor Raines Carter, Municipal Court Chief Judge Crystal Gaines and Judge Gary Jackson, who presided over Luna’s hearing last year.

The suit asserts that the city’s arrangement with PARKatlanta is a violation of the city charter that was undertaken without the consent of the Georgia Legislature, and says that Luna believes the city “improperly delegated part of its police power by entering into a contract that allows a private entity to enforce parts of the city of Atlanta Code of Ordinances. He also believes the City of Atlanta in conjunction with ParkAtlanta has used the parking ordinance as a revenue measure where the scheme of the ordinance is such that the receipts will be continuous and will exceed the cost of installation, maintenance and regulation.”

“We had a misunderstanding the first time, so that suit was dismissed and we re-filed,” said Lynch. “It should go forward this time unless something crazy happens.”

Luna has been a vocal opponent of the PARKatlanta arrangement, which in addition to strict enforcement has resulted in more than 1,000 new meters being placed around the city and extended the hours drivers must pay to park. On his “Paul Luna for Mayor” website, Luna devotes a lengthy section to the issue entitled “Atlanta’s Parking Contract Inhibits Growth, Deters Business to the City.”

Even so, said Lynch, “we’re not necessarily against PARKatlanta; we just want the city of Atlanta to obey the law.”

Deputy City Attorney Eric Richardson said in an email,  “The City has not been served with the lawsuit, so it would be premature for us to comment at this point.”

Patrick Millsaps has become the chief of staff for Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, after starting out as the campaign’s deputy general counsel in Iowa in December. Millsaps is a partner with Georgia firm Hall Booth Smith & Slover and former chairman of the Georgia Ethics Commission.

Millsaps planned to stay on the campaign trail only through the South Carolina primary—until Gingrich made him chief of staff last week, according to an announcement from Hall Booth. “It’s great having a Georgia native help out on the campaign trail—he reminds me of home, and the good people of Georgia,” said Gingrich in the statement.

“We are thrilled to have Patrick join our team. He brings to the team an ability to think critically in tough situations and provides insight and advice on how to best move forward strategically,” Gingrich said.

Georgia’s secretary of state ruled Tuesday that President Barack Obama’s name will appear on the state’s Democratic primary ballot.

Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican, followed last week’s recommendation to him by Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings Deputy Chief Judge Michael M. Malihi, who rejected arguments from so-called “birthers” that Obama is ineligible to run for president.

“I find that the respondent, President Barack Obama, meets the state of Georgia’s eligibility requirements,” Kemp said in a statement.

A group of Georgia voters had contested Obama’s qualifications, saying he didn’t qualify as a natural born citizen as required by the U.S. Constitution.

Some plaintiffs argued to Malihi during a Jan. 27 hearing that Obama’s birth documents were forgeries and his Social Security number was fraudulently obtained. Other plaintiffs said Obama didn’t qualify as “natural born” because only one of his parents was a U.S. citizen. Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas, and his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born in Kenya, which plaintiffs say made him a British citizen.

Malihi ruled for Obama on Friday, saying people born within the borders of the United States qualify as natural born citizens, regardless of the citizenship of their parents.

Malihi’s decision was only a recommendation to the secretary of state, according to state law.

Kemp’s statement called his action the “final decision” in the eligibility case.

A Georgia administrative judge rejected “birther” claims and ruled Friday that President Barack Obama is eligible to appear on the state’s March 6 Democratic primary ballot.

Judge Michael M. Malihi, deputy chief judge for the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings, wrote in a 10-page order that he found “little, if any, probative value” of testimony by witnesses who argued that Obama had faked his identity through forged birth certificates or a fraudulently obtained Social Security number.

Malihi also criticized Obama’s attorney, Michael K. Jablonski, for skipping a Jan. 26 hearing on the matter.

“By deciding this matter on the merits, the Court in no way condones the conduct or legal scholarship of Defendant’s attorney, Mr. Jablonski,” Malihi wrote. “This Decision is entirely based on the law, as well as evidence and legal arguments presented at the hearing.”

Jablonski couldn’t be reached immediately to comment after Malihi’s decision was released late Friday afternoon.

Malihi’s findings will be sent to Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican who has final authority to decide Obama’s ballot eligibility.

Malihi said that Obama met the constitutional requirement that presidential candidates be “natural born citizens” because he was born in the United States.

The judge relied on a 2009 Indiana Court of Appeals analysis in Ankeny v. Governor, 916 N.E.2d 678, of many of the same arguments, including that Obama didn’t qualify as “natural born” because only one of his parents was a U.S. citizen. Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Kansas, and his father, Barack Obama Sr., was born in Kenya, which plaintiffs say made him a British citizen.

“Parents born within the borders of the United States are ‘natural born citizens’ for Article II, Section I purposes, regardless of the citizenship of their parents,” according to Malihi’s citation of Ankeny.

Malihi said witnesses who questioned Obama’s credentials weren’t qualified or tendered as experts on birth records, forged documents or document manipulation.

“For the purposes of this analysis, this Court considered that President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Therefore … he became a citizen at birth and is a natural born citizen,” Malihi wrote.

Obama was born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961, according to birth documents released by his campaign and newspaper birth notices published at the time.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s Judicial Nominating Commission has released a list of six lawyers for the governor’s consideration in filling an upcoming vacancy on the state Court of Appeals:

• Michael P. Boggs, a Superior Court judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit;
• Elizabeth L. “Lisa” Branch, a partner at Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta;
• Donald P. Geary, chief assistant district attorney in DeKalb County;
• John C. Pridgen, chief judge for the Cordele Judicial Circuit Superior Court;
• Mary E. Staley, Superior Court judge in Cobb County; and
• Benjamin W. Studdard III, chief judge of the Henry County State Court.

One of those six is to succeed Judge J.D. Smith, who in September announced plans to retire from the court at the end of this year.