HOSCHTON, Ga. (AP) — The May election for Georgia’s Supreme Court is playing out the way races for the state’s highest court have played out for decades: Incumbent justices are running uncontested.
But there is one exception, and it’s driven by the issue that has upended politics across the country for two years: abortion.
Justice André Pinson is the only one of the four incumbents running for office to mount a challenge, and it’s a formidable challenge. Former U.S. Rep. John Barrow, a Democrat, hopes to exploit voter backlash over abortion restrictions to unseat Pinson in what could be a model for future Georgia judicial elections in a state that has become a partisan battleground .
The May 21 general election for a six-year term is nonpartisan and a Barrow victory would not change the Court’s conservative leanings. Eight of the nine justices, including Pinson, were appointed by Republican governors. The other won his seat unopposed after being appointed to a state appeals court by a Democratic governor.
Barrow’s offer is considered a long-term project. Pinson, appointed two years ago by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp, appears to be raising more money for his campaign as the state’s legal establishment closes ranks around him.
But Barrow hopes that a voter backlash against Georgia’s near-total abortion ban will be the path to an upset.
In discussions primarily with Democratic groups, Barrow said that when Pinson was Georgia’s solicitor general, he was the state’s most responsible attorney supporting the Mississippi case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court . overturn a constitutional right to abortion in 2022.
This decision cleared the way for a 2019 Georgia law to take effect banning most abortions after fetal heart activity can be detected, usually around the sixth week of pregnancy. This is before many women know they are pregnant.
At an April 15 Democratic meeting in a retirement community northeast of Atlanta, Barrow attacked Pinson’s former membership in the party. Federalist Society and his mandate as clerk to the judge of the Supreme Court Claire Thomasdrawing boos from the 50 participants.
Barrow said he believes Georgians have a constitutional right to abortion and that voters will increase their chances of restoring broader access to abortion by doing something they have never done before: defeat state justice in place.
“I believe the Georgia Constitution provides a right to privacy, and that encompasses everything we associate with what the law was under Roe v. Wade. And then it’s probably broader,” Barrow said. “That would mean that the current law, the current ban that we are currently living with, violates that provision of the Constitution.”
Opponents of the six-week ban are challenge it in state court, arguing that Georgia’s exceptionally well-developed privacy law should override it. This case will almost certainly go to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Pinson said it would be inappropriate to discuss his views on abortion or other topics that might come up…
