Two Democratic-backed candidates for the state Supreme Court have filed an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in the latest twist in an ongoing lawsuit over their campaign rhetoric.
The candidates, former Democratic state Sen. Jen Jordan and personal injury attorney Miracle Rankin, are seeking to vacate an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling issued Sunday. In the ruling, two Trump-appointed judges sided with a state judicial ethics agency, lifting a district court judge’s temporary order that prevented the agency from issuing public statements about Jordan and Rankin’s comments on the campaign trail. A third judge, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, dissented.
On Monday, the Judicial Qualifications Commission released two public statements declaring that it “reasonably believes” Jordan and Rankin violated Georgia’s Code of Judicial Conduct. The panel flagged Jordan and Rankin’s joint campaign approach, since judicial candidates aren’t allowed to endorse others, and frowned on their appearance at reproductive freedom events and comments saying they would restore abortion rights.
At issue is the timing of the commission’s public statements. They were issued in the gap between the federal appeals court’s action and when a judge, Leslie Abrams Gardner of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, issued her final order preventing the commission from releasing a public statement.
The two candidates are challenging Republican-appointed state Supreme Court justices in a race that has garnered significant attention from political figures and parties on both sides of the aisle, although the seats are officially nonpartisan.
