Georgia CommonsConstitution of the State of Georgia
Article VI. JUDICIAL BRANCH · Article VI. JUDICIAL BRANCH · Section I. JUDICIAL POWER
Art. VI, Sec. I, Para. I. Judicial power of the state.
Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.
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The judicial power of the state shall be vested exclusively in the following classes of courts: magistrate courts, probate courts, juvenile courts, state courts, superior courts, state-wide business court, Georgia Tax Court, Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court. Nothing in this paragraph shall preclude a superior court from creating a business court division for its circuit in a manner provided by law. Magistrate courts, probate courts, juvenile courts, and state courts shall be courts of limited jurisdiction. In addition, the General Assembly may establish or authorize the establishment of municipal courts and may authorize administrative agencies to exercise quasi-judicial powers. Municipal courts shall have jurisdiction over ordinance violations and such other jurisdiction as provided by law. Except as provided in this paragraph and in Section X, municipal courts, county recorder’s courts and civil courts in existence on June 30, 1983, and administrative agencies shall not be subject to the provisions of this article. The General Assembly shall have the authority to confer “by law” jurisdiction upon municipal courts to try state offenses.
History
Ga. Const. 1983, Art. 6, § 1, Para. 1; Ga. L. 1990, p. 2440, § 1/HR 861; Ga. L. 2018, p. 1130, § 1/HR 993; Ga. L. 2024, p. 1189, § 1/HR 598.
Editor's notes
The constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 2018, p. 1130, § 1/HR 993), which inserted “state-wide business court,” in the first sentence and added the second sentence, was ratified at the general election held on November 6, 2018. The constitutional amendment (Ga. L. 2024, p. 1189, § 1/HR 598), which inserted “Georgia Tax Court,” following “business court,” in the first sentence, was ratified at the general election held November 5, 2024.
Law reviews
For annual survey on trial practice and procedure, see 70 Mercer L. Rev. 253 (2018). For note, “The Case of the Vanishing Supreme Court Contest: Barrow v. Raffensperger Eliminates the Power of the People to Elect their Appellate, Superior, and State Court Judges,” see 72 Mercer L. Rev. 957 (2021).
Other notes
- Judicial Qualifications Commis-Standing.
- Georgia Supreme Court held only plaintiffs with a cognizable injury can bring a suit in Georgia courts; unlike federal law, however, that injury need not always be individualized; sometimes it can be a generalized grievance shared by community members, especially other residents, taxpayers, voters, or citizens. Sons of Confederate Veterans v. Henry County Bd. of Comm’rs, 315 Ga. 39, 880 S.E.2d 168, 2022 Ga. LEXIS 284 (2022).
- Third party standing doctrine.
- Court’s prior decision in Feminist Women’s Health Center v. Burgess, 282 Ga. 433 (2007), which adopted the federal third-party standing doctrine, was overruled and, as such, a plaintiff is required to assert a violation of their own legal rights, not just factual harm, to maintain an action in Georgia courts. Wasserman v. Franklin Cnty., 320 Ga. 624, 911 S.E.2d 583, 2025 Ga. LEXIS 15 (2025).
Read the official page (the state's PDF, opened at the page this text was read from).
Current through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly.
Text read from 2ga-const-(v2)-pdf.pdf, Volume V2, 2016 edition, 2025 supplement, pages 83 to 84; merge action: replaced; file SHA-256 6dc4b5d1cb11.