Courts

A Georgia Judge Was Removed For Exploiting Clients And Vacationing On The Public's Dime

If only the U.S. Supreme Court had as much guts as Georgia's.

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Man holding cardboardI wish I could tell you that the judge from Georgia is named Clarence Thomas, but alas. The good news is that the removed judge definitely did things worth getting removed over — at this point I’m celebrating anything that suggests some semblance of ethical accountability keeping judges in check, Supreme or otherwise. From Reuters:

The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday removed a state appeals judge from office after an investigation determined that he broke campaign finance rules and took advantage of an elderly client.

The high court upheld a hearing panel’s findings that Christian Coomer, a former state legislator who served on the Atlanta-based Georgia Court of Appeals, acted in bad faith and did so for his own personal financial benefit.

Former judge Coomer was more than just a gavel smasher; Coomer was also on the Air Force Reserve and a JAG for the National Guard. I’m all for supporting the troops, but embezzling from old clients is not the way to get thanked for your service. In addition to his poor judgment, Coomer also makes his peers look bad. The court arrived at a similar conclusion with much fancier language:

“By demonstrating a pattern of refusing to comply with the law and professional norms when noncompliance was in his interest, he has undermined the public’s trust in his ability to follow and apply the law honestly and fairly in cases that come before him,” the Georgia Supreme Court said in its 49-page opinion.

Even if you factor in his removal, the state has been pretty lenient with Coomer. He’s been suspended with pay since January 2021 once word got out that he financed a family trip with campaign funds. They couldn’t have wrapped up the investigation a little earlier? That’s over two years of him being on payroll and doing nothing! I know Georgia is suffering from a very large budget surplus at the moment, but there have to be better ways to productively waste the money than issuing checks to a judge who used campaign funds to take his family to Hawaii.

Georgia Supreme Court Removes Appeals Judge Over Ethics Violations [Reuters]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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