DeKalb County Superior Court Chief Judge Asha Jackson said she was first confronted with the weight of convening court in a pandemic while at a conference in Miami the day that city’s mayor announced he had COVID-19. 

Jackson said her first thought was to shut the DeKalb County Courthouse down, and she called Chief Justice Harold Melton that morning to tell him she was headed home to do so. Two days later, Melton would issue the first of six statewide judicial emergency declarations suspending all but essential court operations.