Georgia’s judicial watchdog agency is barking back at an insinuation it withdrew a formal advisory opinion limiting its jurisdiction over pre-judicial conduct in order to pursue ethics charges against suspended Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Christian Coomer.

After defense attorneys for Coomer contended a withdrawn 2018 JQC opinion remained binding in barring the commission’s jurisdiction over “‘conduct by a non-judge before that person becomes a judicial candidate,’” attorneys for the Judicial Qualifications Commission of Georgia filed a reply brief countering the notion.