After more than 26 years on the bench, Superior Court Judge Ralph Van Pelt Jr. submitted his resignation to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Monday.
Van Pelt presides over the Lookout Mountain Circuit, which covers the Georgia counties of Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade and Walker.
He was facing an election May 24 - and a candidate running against him thinks the governor should allow the election to proceed.
In a news release, Van Pelt said he will not be leaving office until Dec. 1. Since he also served as a district attorney, he said he's been in public office 33 years and will enter private practice after his retirement.
"I want to thank all the people who made my career possible and all the many thousands of people that have voted for me over the years. I look forward to the next chapter of my career," Van Pelt said, adding in an interview that he plans to run for the Board of Governors for the state bar, which is like a legislature for the State Bar of Georgia, he said. That election is in March, and lawyers for the circuit vote.
In Georgia, Superior Court judge is an elected position. If the seat is vacated by a resignation, the governor is empowered to appoint someone to the bench. Under Georgia law, the appointee would be allowed to serve for as much as two years before an election is called.
Melissa Gifford Hise is a Summerville-based attorney who has been campaigning against Van Pelt since Jan. 14. She also ran against him in 2018. Acknowledging that she is not an elections attorney, she said supporters of hers who are more familiar with election law believe there is case law that would allow the governor to not accept Van Pelt's resignation and allow the election to continue.
"At this point I have been campaigning really hard for the last month and a week, or month and two weeks, and I've got a substantial amount of support, and almost 500 signs out across the four-county area, and have made some significant headway as far as the campaign goes and support goes," Hise said in a phone interview. "So I would want the election to go through. If the appointment process happens, I will apply for the appointment."
According to Justia U.S. Law, a legal website, the Barrow v. Raffensperger case found that a judicial vacancy exists only when the office is actually unoccupied by the incumbent - not simply when an intent to resign has been announced.
In 2020, Supreme Court Justice Keith Blackwell submitted his resignation, and an upcoming election was canceled before a new judge was appointed to the seat. Candidates for the judgeship sued, and while a trial court upheld the governor's decision to appoint a judge rather than let the election go forward, on review, the Georgia Supreme Court disagreed with that reasoning, saying, "Because Justice Blackwell continues to occupy his office, the trial court erred in concluding that his office is presently vacant; accordingly, the governor's appointment power has not yet arisen."
Hise said she would respect the governor's decision on the matter and wouldn't resort to legal action to force the issue if the election was canceled and an appointment was made. Hise said she's running for the seat because she thinks change is needed, children need better representation in the court system, and to bring to bear more mediation and an alternative court to help veterans.
In a text message, Van Pelt said that technically the governor could decline to accept his resignation but emphasized that's never happened before. Early evening Monday, Van Pelt said he hadn't heard anything from the governor's office about his resignation besides an acknowledgment that his letter was received.
Van Pelt said he believes it's up to the governor to decide who's picked next, and he hasn't talked with Kemp about that choice. He said he's only talked to Kemp's staff about "nuts and bolts" stuff regarding his resignation.
An email to the governor's office asking about possible candidates to be appointed to the Superior Court judgeship and whether the election would be allowed to continue wasn't answered before deadline.
Contact Andrew Wilkins at awilkins@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6659. Follow him on Twitter @tweetatwilkins.