Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs will resign at the end of March just three months into his new term after voters reelected him last year.
Boggs’ decision allows Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to appoint a replacement to the powerful court that is often the final say in contentious public policy disputes. The justices will vote among themselves to choose the next chief justice, although, by tradition, that position is given to the justice with the most time served on the court. That would be Presiding Justice Nels Peterson.
Boggs cited family commitments as the reason for his departure.
“My wife recently retired from full-time teaching, and we have increasing family and personal obligations at home in South Georgia that make this change the right decision for us,” he wrote in a hand-delivered resignation letter.
Boggs was first appointed to the Supreme Court in 2016 by former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal. Voters then elected him to the Supreme Court in 2018 and again last year with no opposition.
More than helping decide cases, Boggs was also chair of the Judicial Council of Georgia, the policymaking body for the judicial branch. Last month, Boggs urged lawmakers to abolish the partisan election of judges across the state.
Boggs’ legacy is likely to center on his work reforming Georgia’s criminal justice system.
During Deal’s administration, he served as the governor’s point man, shepherding legislation through the general assembly. His success in Georgia made him a sought-after speaker and one of the nation’s leading advocates for criminal justice reform.
For six years beginning in 2012, Boggs co-chaired the state’s Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform. As his urging, lawmakers poured money into accountability courts, which work toward alternative sentences for low-level offenders who included drug addicts, the mentally ill and veterans.
The focus was to keep them out of prison and help them get back on their feet by getting an education or a job. Boggs’ work also led the Legislature to lessen punishments for certain nonviolent offenders, keeping them from spending time behind bars as well and saving taxpayers millions of dollars in prison funding.
The reforms also helped drop prison admissions of Black people to historic lows.
A star football player from Waycross, Boggs played defensive tackle at Georgia Tech until a leg injury ended his career. After he lost his football scholarship, he worked nights and weekends to pay his way through college and Mercer University law school.
He held various jobs, ranging from convenience store clerk to gravedigger. Boggs, a former legislator, served as a trial judge in the Waycross Judicial Circuit, where he presided over its drug court program.
This story was updated to correct when Chief Justice Boggs was reelected. He was reelected last May.
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