BARROW v. RAFFENSPERGER (Two Cases)

Justice Keith Blackwell told Governor Brian Kemp he would resign effective November 18, 2020, and Kemp accepted immediately. The Secretary of State then canceled the scheduled May 19 election for the next six-year term of Blackwell's seat, reasoning that the Governor would simply appoint a successor. Two people, John Barrow and Elizabeth Beskin, tried to qualify as candidates anyway, were turned away, and sued the Secretary in Fulton County Superior Court seeking to force the election to go forward. The trial court sided with the Secretary, and both candidates appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. The Supreme Court agreed the election should stay canceled, but for different reasons than the trial court gave. It held Blackwell's office is not vacant yet since he still holds it, but because his resignation cannot legally be undone once accepted, a vacancy is guaranteed by November 18. Under Georgia's Constitution, that guaranteed vacancy wipes out his current term, meaning the term up for election in May would never actually exist, so the election would have been legally meaningless.

A Justice's unequivocal resignation, once unequivocally accepted by the Governor, cannot be withdrawn even by mutual consent, so a guaranteed future vacancy eliminates the current term of office; an election for a term that will never exist is legally nugatory and cannot be compelled by mandamus, even though no vacancy currently exists.

The ruling confirms that Georgia governors can fill Supreme Court vacancies by appointment even when a resignation is announced well before an election, letting officials effectively cancel elections for seats whose terms will be eliminated, which shapes how future judicial transitions and campaign planning work statewide.

Affirmed

1. The court explained that under the Georgia Constitution, a 'vacancy' in a judicial office means the office has no incumbent at all, so Justice Blackwell's office was not yet vacant simply because his resignation had been accepted; he was still actively serving.
2. It then applied Paragraphs III and IV of the Constitution's judicial selection provisions, which say that when an incumbent's office is vacated before his term ends, that unexpired term is eliminated entirely, and any Justice later appointed by the Governor serves a brand-new, individually calculated term rather than finishing the old one.
3. Because Justice Blackwell's resignation was unequivocal and had been unequivocally accepted by the Governor, the court examined whether such a prospective resignation could later be withdrawn, since if it could, there would be no certainty a vacancy would occur before his term ended in December 2020.
4. Surveying Georgia's adoption of English common law (which requires both tendering and formal acceptance to make a resignation effective) and comparing approaches used by other states, the court concluded the better-reasoned rule, and the one consistent with Georgia's existing statute and case law, is that an accepted resignation becomes irrevocable, even with mutual consent of the official and the Governor.
5. Applying the mandamus statute, which forbids courts from ordering an act that would be 'nugatory or fruitless,' the court reasoned that because Blackwell's term is certain to be eliminated by his irrevocable resignation, the May 2020 election for that term would elect someone to an office that will never exist, so ordering the Secretary to hold it would serve no legal purpose.
6. Because Beskin's federal civil rights claims depended entirely on showing the Secretary violated Georgia election law, and the court found no such violation, her claims under federal law failed as well.

• Justice Blackwell resignation
• canceled Supreme Court election
• gubernatorial appointment power
• mandamus
• judicial vacancies