The decisions supporting how a governor’s appointment overrode Judge Tommy Smith’s election—Perdue v. Palmour, 278 Ga. 217 (2004), Heiskell v. Roberts, 295 Ga. 795 (2014) and Barrow v. Raffensperger (2020)—completely bastardize and render useless the state Constitution.

Interpreting a statute that applies to judges only, and to no other elected office, the Supreme Court in these three decisions completely eliminated terms for judges. Under the rulings as they now stand, the same judge may resign within six months of her/his term and be appointed to fill her/his own vacancy, ad infinitum, thereby completely removing the right of the public to have a say in who should be their judge.