A leading contender for one of three vacancies on the Georgia Supreme Court has pulled his name from the list of candidates.
Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Dillard said Monday he wants to stay on his court’s bench to help with a “transformational period” as it expands from 12 to 15 judges.
Dillard was among 130 attorneys nominated for the open spots – two created by legislation that boosts the court from seven justices to nine and a third left open by Chief Justice Hugh Thompson’s decision to retire in January.
A conservative jurist with a strong presence on social media, Dillard was appointed to the appeals court bench by Sonny Perdue in 2010 and was considered a top candidate for a promotion to the state's top court.
With the three new openings, Gov. Nathan Deal has the chance to appoint a majority of the court's bench before he leaves office in January 2019. He has already made one appointment – Keith Blackwell was tapped in June 2012 – and Presiding Justice Harris Hines also said he plans to retire before Deal's tenure is up.
Here is Dillard’s full statement:
"I am honored to have been nominated to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia. But after a great deal of prayer and consideration, I have decided not to seek an appointment to the Supreme Court and to continue my service on the Court of Appeals of Georgia—an institution I dearly love. This is a transformational period for the Court of Appeals (with the Court's recent expansion from 12 to 15 judges, the historic jurisdictional shift of numerous categories of cases from the Supreme Court to our Court in January 2017, and newly authorized rule-making authority), and I firmly believe that I can best serve my fellow Georgians by providing stability, continuity, and leadership on our state's intermediate appellate court. I look forward to working with my distinguished colleagues on the Court of Appeals for the foreseeable future, and to seeking reelection to the Court in 2018."
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