New legislation intended to redesign the state Judicial Qualifications Commission for the second time in a year is “a huge improvement” over the current law, which took effect Jan. 1, said a Georgia State University professor of law and ethics. 

The new bill (HB 126), introduced Wednesday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Wendell Willard, R-Sandy Springs, strengthens due-process procedures for a reincarnated judicial watchdog agency now controlled by the Legislature, said Clark Cunningham, who also directs the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism. Cunningham said the current law gave the Legislature “more control over the Judicial Qualifications Commission than is the case in any other state in the country.”