Georgia Supreme Court Justice Michael Boggs to step down at end of March

by Stanley Dunlap, Georgia Recorder
February 26, 2025

Georgia Chief Justice Michael P. Boggs announced Tuesday that he will step down from the Georgia Supreme Court at the end of March, less than a year after voters re-elected him to another six-year term.

Boggs submitted a letter Tuesday to Gov. Brian Kemp declaring his plan to resign as the leader of the state’s highest court when its current term concludes March 31. Boggs said he plans to return to private litigation after spending two decade as a judge on various state courts.

Kemp will appoint a new justice to fill Boggs’ remaining term that will expire at the end of 2030. The Supreme Court justices will select the court’s next chief justice, who would be the fourth person to serve in the position since 2021. 

Former Gov. Nathan Deal appointed Boggs, then seated on the Court of Appeals of Georgia, to the Supreme Court in December 2016. Boggs would remain on the Supreme Court after winning elections in 2018 before being reelected in last year’s nonpartisan May election. 

As chief justice, Boggs’ oversees the state’s judicial branch, serves as the court’s spokesperson and leads deliberations for cases that make it before the Supreme Court. 

Boggs wrote in Tuesday’s resignation letter that he is stepping down from the bench “to begin the next chapter of my life,” mentioning family obligations and his wife’s recent retirement as an educator. 

 “I consider it my greatest honor to have served as chief justice, and I will be forever grateful to Gov. Nathan Deal and the citizens of Georgia for affording me this privilege to serve,” he wrote. “I have been blessed to work with dedicated jurists, talented court professionals and staff members, who have made my service possible and to whom I express my utmost appreciation. I also am indebted to my many friends and to the citizens who have graciously supported me over the years.”

During Boggs’ tenure as chief justice, he helped steer Georgia court’s through the difficulties of a pandemic that shut down courtrooms across the state, created massive backlogs of cases and shifted how courts operate in the future. 

During the 2025 annual State of the Judiciary address, Boggs discussed plans for supporting a statewide court system with 1,600 judges and thousands of court staffers by improving safety, technology and compensation.

Boggs discussed plans to have a new statewide court management system in place by the end of the year, replacing a system that is now siloed among the state’s various legal systems, making it difficult to share information across districts.

Prior to his time on the Supreme Court, Boggs served as a judge for the Court of Appeals of Georgia and Waycross Judicial Circuit, and as a Democratic state House legislator in the early 2000s. 

The chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court is selected by its members to serve two two-year terms.

Boggs’ colleagues would select him in July 2022 to replace Chief Justice David Nahmias, who resigned after 12 years on the Supreme Court and less than a year as chief justice. Nahimas succeeded Harold Melton’s tenure as chief justice from 2019 to July 2021. Melton stepped down to begin a partnership with major law firm Troutman Pepper after 16 years on the Supreme Court. 

On Tuesday, Melton credited Boggs with leadership in crisis management during the pandemic and “visionary planning.” Melton served alongside Boggs on the Supreme Court from December 2016 until the summer of 2021. 

“I count him as an essential part of the infrastructure of our state,” Melton said. “I consider him to be a dear friend. He has brought a lot of integrity and intelligence and forward thinking and vision to the court, and he’s a great collaborative partner in deciding cases and working towards advancements within the judiciary as a whole.”

On Tuesday, Kemp praised Boggs’ dedication to public service and role in leading the state courts.

“On behalf of grateful Georgians throughout the state, Marty and I would like to thank Chief Justice Michael Boggs for his contributions to our state and service on the highest court in Georgia,” Kemp wrote on X. “We’re also grateful for his many years of judicial and civic service before taking a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court. Throughout his career, he has endeavored to uphold the fair and equal justice that defines our courts, and his impact will continue to be felt as he enters this next chapter.

University of Georgia political science professor Charles Bullock said the timing of Boggs’ retirement follows a trend of judges who initially are appointed to the court, which can lead to a series of subsequent appointments to fill vacancies. The process allows governors to make multiple appointments that give the incumbents a significant advantage at the polls during elections. 

Boggs will retire three months after his new term began.

“For example, he could conceivably promote a member of the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court, which creates another vacancy,” Bullock said. “Maybe they tap somebody who is currently serving as a Superior Court judge somewhere to fill the vacancy on the Court of Appeals, and that might create yet another vacancy. He could then promote a state court judge to be on the Superior Court, which creates another vacancy.”

Last week, Boggs kicked off the Georgia Bar, Media & Judiciary Conference in downtown Atlanta by discussing a judges’ role in maintaining public trust and transparency and challenges courts face with how they’re portrayed in the media.

Boggs also warned of the dangers of partisan political actors and other people spreading disinformation that’s led to a rise in physical attacks on judges and other threats to court systems. 

“I think ultimately the threats manifest themselves in ways that are dangerous to our institution,” he said at Friday’s conference hosted by the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. “They’re dangerous because the misinformation can get political actors so interested in our work, that it threatens our budget process, that it threatens the core functions of the court.” 

Melton credited Boggs with leading the way toward creating a new statewide case management system.

“If the court system is able to pull if off, it will allow computer systems that run these courts to talk to one another and use the same language and create all kinds of efficiencies and synergies that you would expect a court system to have, but we don’t have,” Melton said. “That would be huge, and it’s underneath the hood, but underneath the hood stuff can be important.” 

Melton said that increasing salaries for judges is a significant step toward ensuring there are strong candidates for judgeships. 

“That’s big because we definitely want quality judges,” he said. “People don’t look at the salaries that are paid to judges right now and feel sorry for them and nor should you. Anybody that would be a quality judge can make a lot more money out in the private sector so you don’t want good candidates not to take the job because the pay cuts are just too great.”

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