Judges appointed by Nathan Deal

	Judicial selection in Georgia
	Georgia Supreme Court
Method:	Nonpartisan election
Term:	6 years
	Georgia Court of Appeals
Method:	Nonpartisan election
Term:	6 years
	Georgia Superior Courts
Method:	Nonpartisan election
Term:	4 years
	Georgia Probate Courts
Method:	Partisan election and Nonpartisan election
Term:	4 years
	Georgia State Courts
Method:	Nonpartisan election
Term:	4 years

	Judicial Appointments
	Governor Nathan Deal
	Other Governors

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This page lists judges appointed by Nathan Deal (R) during his term as Governor of Georgia. As of today, the total number of Deal appointees was 99. For the full profile of Deal, click here.

Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage of the 100 largest cities in America by population. Some Georgia judges are outside of that coverage scope. As a result, this page does not provide an exhaustive list of all judges appointed by Gov. Deal.

Appointment process

In Georgia, the governor makes a judicial appointment after candidates are recommended by a judicial nominating commission. After the governor initially appoints a judge, the appointee must compete in the next general election held more than six months after appointment.^[1]

Appointed judges

The tables below list the governor's appointees to the courts across the state.

State Courts

Supreme Court

Name	Court	Active
Michael P. Boggs	Georgia Supreme Court	January 1, 2017 - March 31, 2025
Nels Peterson	Georgia Supreme Court	January 1, 2017 - Present
Britt Grant	Georgia Supreme Court
Charlie Bethel	Georgia Supreme Court	October 2, 2018 - Present
Keith Blackwell	Georgia Supreme Court
Sarah Warren	Georgia Supreme Court	September 17, 2018 - Present

Court of Appeals

Name	Court	Active
Christian Coomer	Georgia Court of Appeals	October 31, 2018 - August 16, 2023
Brian Rickman	Georgia Court of Appeals	January 1, 2016 - Present
Tilman E. Self	Georgia Court of Appeals	2007 - March 7, 2018
William Ray	Georgia Court of Appeals	2012 - 2018
Elizabeth Gobeil	Georgia Court of Appeals	2018 - Present
Stephen S. Goss	Georgia Court of Appeals	2018 - August 24, 2019
D. Todd Markle	Georgia Court of Appeals	2018 - Present
Carla W. McMillian	Georgia Court of Appeals	January 24, 2013 - March 27, 2020
Amanda Mercier	Georgia Court of Appeals	January 1, 2016 - Present
Clyde Reese	Georgia Court of Appeals	December 1, 2016 - December 17, 2022
E. Trenton Brown III	Georgia Court of Appeals	2018 - Present
Elizabeth L. Branch	Georgia Court of Appeals

Local Courts

Name	Court	Active
Mary Beth Priest	Appalachian Judicial Circuit
Philip C. Smith	Bell-Forsyth Judicial Circuit
Jeffrey Monroe	Bibb County State Court
Jeffrey B. Hanson	Bibb County State Court
Ray Smith	Bryan County State Court
Jackson E. Cox	Burke County State Court
Ronald Goulart	Catoosa County State Court
Gregory V. Sapp	Chatham County State Court
Arthur L. Smith III	Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit
Ron Mullin	Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit
Margaret Spencer	Clayton County State Court
Michael T. Garrett	Clayton County State Court
Tammi Hayward	Clayton County State Court
Kathryn Powers	Clayton County State Court
Henry R. Thompson	Cobb County State Court
Richard Spencer	Crawford County Magistrate Court
Stacey K. Hydrick	DeKalb County State Court	2011 - June 14, 2019
Shondeana Crews-Morris	DeKalb County State Court
Mike Jacobs	DeKalb County State Court
Brian Ross	DeKalb County State Court
William H. Mills	Early County State Court
Jason B. Thompson	Fayette County State Court
Leslie C. Abernathy-Maddox	Forsyth County State Court
Cassandra Kirk	Fulton County Magistrate Court Chief Magistrate Judge	2015 - Present
Eric A. Richardson	Fulton County State Court
Chris Phelps	Georgia 10th Superior Court District Northern Circuit
Regina Quick	Georgia 10th Superior Court District Western Circuit
Glen Cheney	Georgia 1st Superior Court District Atlantic Circuit
Timothy R. Walmsley	Georgia 1st Superior Court District Eastern Judicial Circuit
Lovett Bennett Jr.	Georgia 1st Superior Court District Ogeechee Circuit	2018 - Present
J. Kelly Brooks	Georgia 1st Superior Court District Waycross District
David Mincey	Georgia 3rd Superior Court District Macon Circuit
Philip T. Raymond III	Georgia 3rd Superior Court District Macon Circuit
Verda Colvin	Georgia 3rd Superior Court District Macon Circuit
Asha F. Jackson	Georgia 4th Superior Court District Stone Mountain Circuit
Jean-Paul Boulee	Georgia 4th Superior Court District Stone Mountain Circuit	2015 - 2019
Robert C. McBurney	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit
Rebecca Crumrine Rieder	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit	2018 - December 31, 2020
D. Todd Markle	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit	2011 - 2018
Paige Whitaker	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit
Shukura Lageane Ingram	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit	August 1, 2018 - Present
Emily Richardson	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit	2019 - Present
Rachel Krause	Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit	January 7, 2019 - Present
Aaron B. Mason	Georgia 6th Superior Court District Clayton Judicial Circuit
W. Travis Sakrison	Georgia 6th Superior Court District Coweta Circuit
Robert D. Leonard II	Georgia 7th Superior Court Cobb Circuit
Suzanne H. Smith	Georgia 7th Superior Court District Cherokee Circuit
David Blevins	Georgia 7th Superior Court District Conasauga Circuit
David J. Blevins	Georgia 7th Superior Court District Conasauga Circuit
Cynthia Adams	Georgia 7th Superior Court District Douglas Circuit
Don Thompson	Georgia 7th Superior Court District Lookout Mountain Circuit
Brenda Holbert Trammell	Georgia 8th Superior Court District Ocmulgee Circuit
E. Trenton Brown III	Georgia 8th Superior Court District Ocmulgee Circuit
Alison T. Burleson	Georgia 8th Superior Court District Ocmulgee Circuit
C. Michael Johnson	Georgia 8th Superior Court District Oconee Circuit
John Worcester-Holland	Georgia 9th Superior Court District Appalachian Circuit
Raymond George	Georgia 9th Superior Court District Enotah Circuit
Stan Gunter	Georgia 9th Superior Court District Enotah Circuit
George Hutchinson	Georgia 9th Superior Court District Gwinnett Circuit
Randy Rich	Georgia 9th Superior Court District Gwinnett Circuit
Shawn Fitzpatrick Bratton	Gwinnett County State Court
Robert D. Alexander	Jackson County State Court
Jeffery Osteen	Liberty County State Court
Ellen S. Golden	Lowndes County State Court
C. Jean Bolin	McIntosh County State Court
Chan Caudell	Mountain Judicial Circuit
Maureen Gottfried	Muscogee County State Court
Benjamin S. Richardson	Muscogee County State Court
Lauren Watson	Northern Judicial Circuit
Thomas H. Baxley	Pataula Judicial Circuit
Dean C. Bucci	Paulding Judicial Circuit
Wayne D. McLocklin	Piedmont Judicial Circuit
Michael Gailey	Putnam County State Court
Robert Hunter	Richmond County State Court
William Sparks	Rome Judicial Circuit
Mark E. Mitchell	Thomas County State Court
Bruce E. Roberts	Walker County State Court
R. Violet Bennett	Wayne County State Court
Eric Norris	Western Judicial Circuit
H. Patrick Haggard	Western Judicial Circuit
Ralph Powell	Worth County State Court

Judicial selection process

See also: Judicial selection in Georgia

Judicial selection refers to the process used to select judges for courts. At the state level, methods of judicial selection vary substantially in the United States, and in some cases between different court types within a state. There are six primary types of judicial selection: partisan and nonpartisan elections, the Michigan method, assisted appointment, gubernatorial appointment, and legislative elections. To read more about how these selection methods are used across the country, click here.

This article covers how state court judges are selected in Georgia, including:

Georgia Supreme Court,
Georgia Court of Appeals,
Georgia Superior Courts, and
Limited jurisdiction courts

As of March 2023, selection of state court judges in Georgia occurred primarily through nonpartisan elections, though interim vacancies in the appellate and general jurisdiction courts were filled by assisted appointment, where the governor selects a nominee from a list provided by a nominating commission.^[2] The limited jurisdiction courts vary in their selection methods, employing a mix of appointment, partisan elections, and nonpartisan elections.^[3]

Click here to notify us of changes to judicial selection methods in this state.

Appellate state court selection in the United States, by general selection method^[4]

State courts and their selection methods across the U.S., including the District of Columbia^[4]
Method	Supreme Court (of 53)^[5]	Courts of Appeal (of 46)	Trial Courts (of 147)
Partisan elections (PE)	8	6	39
Nonpartisan elections (NPE)	13	16	34
Legislative elections (LE)	2	2	5
Gubernatorial appointment of judges (GA)	5	3	6
Assisted appointment (AA)	22	18	46
Combination or other	3^[6]	1^[7]	17^[8]

State profile

Demographic data for Georgia
	Georgia	U.S.
Total population:	10,199,398	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	57,513	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	60.2%	73.6%
Black/African American:	30.9%	12.6%
Asian:	3.6%	5.1%
Native American:	0.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.1%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	9.1%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	85.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	28.8%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$49,620	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	21.1%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Georgia. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Georgia

Georgia voted Republican in six out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, five are located in Georgia, accounting for 2.43 percent of the total pivot counties.^[9]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Georgia had five Retained Pivot Counties, 2.76 percent of all Retained Pivot Counties.

More Georgia coverage on Ballotpedia

External links

Office of the Governor

Footnotes

↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Limited Jurisdiction Courts," archived October 2, 2014
↑ ^4.0 ^4.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection," archived February 2, 2015
↑ Both Oklahoma and Texas have two state supreme courts: one for civil matters and one for criminal matters.
↑ Michigan and Ohio use nonpartisan general elections with candidates selected through partisan primaries or conventions. In the District of Columbia, judges are selected in the same manner as federal judges.
↑ Judges of the North Dakota Court of Appeals are appointed on an as-needed basis by the supreme court justices.
↑ Most courts that use combination/alternative methods (for example, mayoral appointment) are local level courts. These courts are often governed by selection guidelines that are unique to their specific region.
↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

Georgia courts

Federal courts:

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia

State courts:

Georgia Supreme Court • Georgia Court of Appeals • Georgia Superior Courts • Georgia State Courts • Georgia Business Court • Georgia Tax Court • Georgia Juvenile Courts • Georgia Probate Courts • Georgia Magistrate Courts • Georgia Municipal Courts

State resources:

Courts in Georgia • Georgia judicial elections • Judicial selection in Georgia

[1] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014

[GAgen-2] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014

[lim-3] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Limited Jurisdiction Courts," archived October 2, 2014

[define-4] 4.0 ^4.1 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection," archived February 2, 2015

[5] Both Oklahoma and Texas have two state supreme courts: one for civil matters and one for criminal matters.

[6] Michigan and Ohio use nonpartisan general elections with candidates selected through partisan primaries or conventions. In the District of Columbia, judges are selected in the same manner as federal judges.

[7] Judges of the North Dakota Court of Appeals are appointed on an as-needed basis by the supreme court justices.

[8] Most courts that use combination/alternative methods (for example, mayoral appointment) are local level courts. These courts are often governed by selection guidelines that are unique to their specific region.

[9] The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

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Judges appointed by Nathan Deal

Appointment process

Appointed judges

State Courts

Supreme Court

Court of Appeals

Local Courts

Judicial selection process

Contents

State profile

Presidential voting pattern

Pivot Counties (2016)

Pivot Counties (2020)

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

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