Fresh Loaf

Ah, civility. It’s a beautiful thing, ya know?

Gov. Sonny Perdue and Georgia Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears headed off a legal battle today when the two sides reached a compromise about state judges’ funding.

The governor, pointing to revenue collections that have been less-than-positive thanks to a hellish economy, recently ordered state departments to cut 25 percent from their June budgets. He issued the same ultimatum to the judicial branch.

Not so fast, Sears said. She pointed to the Georgia Constitution, that dusty old document which clearly states that the judicial and executive branches are separate. The issue became a bone of contention between the two branches. Just yesterday, Perdue said he’d withhold the funds and warned the judges against filing a lawsuit.

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President Barack Obama has named U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Sonia Sotomayor as his nomination to replace retiring Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court.

From the New York Times:

Judge Sotomayor, 54, who has served for more than a decade on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals based in New York City, would become the nation’s 111th justice, replacing David H. Souter, who is retiring after 19 years on the bench. Although Justice Souter was appointed by the first President George Bush, he became a mainstay of the liberal faction on the court and so his replacement by Judge Sotomayor likely would not shift the overall balance of power.

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The Georgia Judicial Nomination Commission is accepting nominations to replace state Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who is retiring in June to become the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice and legalize marijuana practice law in Chicago.

Nominees will receive a questionnaire that must be returned by June 22. The commission will meet on June 29 to interview nominees. The commission will select five qualified candidates. A list of those selected will be sent to Gov. Sonny Perdue. He is expected to ignore the short-list and instead appoint the Honorable Judge  Joseph Wapner.

If you’re really interested in applying for this, send me a line and I’ll forward you the info from Perdue’s office. If you have your own connections, well then, good luck!

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NPR and MSNBC, citing anonymous sources, both report Supreme Court Justice David Souter has notified the White House that he plans to retire at the end of the current court term. (The Supreme Court declined to comment on the reports.)

The reports say Souter would remain on the bench until President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace him is confirmed. It would be the first Supreme Court Justice pick by the president. NPR says most observers expect the president to make his first appointment to the court a woman.

Since Obama was elected, many Peach State political observers have pointed toward Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears as a worthy nominee if a vacancy appears on the bench. Sears announced her retirement from the highest court in the state last October. She steps down on June 30.

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Yesterday, the Georgia Supreme Court took its strongest stand yet on the state’s draconian sex offender law, striking as unconstitutional a provision that punished failure to register with life imprisonment.

I welcome lawyers to throw in their two cents, but in my experience, when an appeals court throws out part of a law, it’s typically because of some technical flaw. They usually avoid ruling on the fairness of a law, because that’s a subjective measure that arguably drifts into the realm of policy – and, therefore, politics.

But, in the space of a month, the High Court has twice rapped the law as unfairly harsh. In late October, justices ruled that throwing homeless sex offenders in prison because they were unable to register an address was unfair. While the decision sent a message to legislators that they needed to temper lawmaking with an eye toward justice, it immediately affected a relatively small group.

Tuesday’s ruling, however, sweeps away an over-arching provision of the law that potentially affects all sex offenders. When first passed in 2006, the new sex-offender law changed the penalty for failure to register a change of address within 72 hours, increasing it from three years to life in prison for all violators.

In its opinion, the court described the life-sentence provision as being “grossly disproportionate” to the severity of the crime.

In a concurring ruling, Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote that a life prison sentence “should be reserved for society’s most serious criminal offenders.”

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Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears says she’ll leave the highest court in the state when her term as Chief ends on June 30, 2009.

Appointed by then Gov. Zell Miller in 1992, Sears became the youngest and first woman to serve on the state Supreme Court. In 2005, she became Chief Justice — the first African-American woman in the United States to do so.

Sears’ exit also means she will step down as chair of the Judical Council of Georgia. She says she has no plans to retire and will weigh opportunities in law, business, academia or non-profit organizations.

“I believe we all have a purpose in our lives, and mine is to serve,” Sears said in a statement released by the court. “Achieving justice, equality and hope for our nation, our communities, our families – that’s what I was put here to do. And whatever I do next, I will not waver from that course.”

Sears’ name has been mentioned in some circles as a potential Supreme Court nominee should Barack Obama be elected president. Sure, you can say we’re banging the hometeam drum — yes, we were guilty of parroting the “Gov.-Perdue-might-be-McCain’s-running-mate” meme — but it merits a mention.

Full release after the jump.

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