New Georgia Supreme Court chief justice selected

February 27th, 2025

The Nathan Deal Judicial Center, home of Georgia's Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, is seen Wednesday, May, 1, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Kate Brumback, file)

Georgia’s Supreme Court justices on Thursday unanimously elected a new top judge for the state.

Presiding Justice Nels Peterson is set to become Supreme Court chief justice on April 1, according to a news release from the court. He succeeds Chief Justice Michael Boggs, who announced earlier this week that he plans to step down at the end of March.

The justices also unanimously chose Justice Sarah Hawkins Warren to become the next presiding justice.

Gov. Brian Kemp will appoint a new justice to replace Boggs on the court.

Chief justices lead the state’s judicial branch and are selected for a single four-year term. They serve as the voice of the court and the state’s entire judiciary and preside over the high court’s deliberations. The chief justice also chairs the Judicial Council of Georgia, the policy-making arm of the judiciary.

The presiding justice steps in when the chief justice is absent and is vice-chair of the Judicial Council.

Peterson was appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal in 2016 and has since been elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024. He was previously a judge on the state Court of Appeals and also served as the first solicitor general in the state attorney general’s office, general counsel for the University System of Georgia and executive counsel to the governor.

Warren was also appointed to the high court by Deal and took the bench in September 2018. She was elected to a six-year term in 2020. She had also served as solicitor general in the attorney general’s office.