Last Thursday, President Barack Obama nominated U.S. District Court Judge Julie E. Carnes to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. At the same time, the President nominated Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael P. Boggs, DeKalb County State Court Judge Eleanor Louise Ross, and attorneys Mark Howard Cohen and Leigh Martin May to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The nominations were made after the White House struck a deal with Georgia’s Senate delegation, Senators Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss.
On Monday, as reported in the Macon Telegraph, a group of politicians and community activists gathered at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church to urge the President to withdraw the nominees for the Federal judgeships. The group included U.S. Representatives John Lewis, Hank Johnson, and David Scott, and the Reverend Joseph Lowery. The group has concerns about the nominees, including the fact that Judge Boggs advocated to keep the Confederate battle emblem as part of the state flag when he was a state senator, and voted against marriage equality and abortion rights, and attorney Cohen supported strict voter identification laws in the past.
The nominees await confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
“Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.” — Edmund Burke
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