ATLANTA (AP) — A former Democratic congressman running for Georgia State Supreme Court filed a federal lawsuit Monday claiming a state agency is unconstitutionally trying to block him from talking about abortion.
John Barrow sued hours ahead of a deadline to reply to a complaint that he is violating state judicial ethics rules and that he must bring his campaign ads into compliance with state rules. Among the rules the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission complaint alleges Barrow is violating is one that bars candidates from making commitments about how they will rule on issues that are likely to come before the high court.
Early voting is ongoing in the nonpartisan May 21 election between Barrow and Justice Andrew Pinson, who was appointed to the nine-justice court in 2022 by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. Incumbent justices in Georgia almost never lose or face serious challenges. The three other justices seeking new six-year terms are unopposed.
Facing that uphill battle, Barrow has made abortion the centerpiece of his campaign, saying he believes Georgia's state constitution guarantees a right to abortion that is at least as strong as Roe v. Wade was before it was overturned in 2022. The decision cleared the way for a 2019 Georgia law to take effect banning most abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, usually in about the sixth week of pregnancy. That’s before many women know they are pregnant.
A challenge to Georgia's law is pending in a lower state court and could come before the state Supreme Court. Barrow says that when Pinson was Georgia’s solicitor general, he was the lawyer most responsible for the state supporting the Mississippi case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Pinson has declined to talk about issues but warned in an April interview with The Associated Press that making judicial races conventionally political will destroy people's belief that courts are fair and impartial.
“If Georgia goes down that road of politicizing these nonpartisan judicial races in that way, you lose that,” Pinson said. “I think it shatters people's confidence in an impartial judiciary.”
Barrow says the attempt to muzzle him violates his First Amendment right to free speech and his 14th Amendment right to equal protection under a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that found Minnesota couldn't forbid candidates from announcing their views on legal and political issues.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that I have the constitutional right to speak my mind on the issues. And that’s just what the Code of Judicial Conduct says,” Barrow said in a statement Monday. “That’s because the voters have the even more important constitutional right to know what they’re voting for.”
Courtney Veal, the Judicial Qualifications Commission executive director, did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The commission said in the letter to Barrow that its rules don't violate the decision. Instead, the complaint alleges Barrow went too far, saying he failed to emphasize the duty of a judge to uphold the law, “mischaracterized the role of a jurist as someone who should ( or would, in your case) ‘protect’ selected rights,” made commitments on the issue, misrepresented current Georgia and gave the false impression that his vote alone could change abortion law in the state.
“Unfortunately, John Barrow has decided to ignore Georgia's judicial ethics code,” Pinson spokesperson Heath Garrett said in a statement. “His lawsuit makes clear that his goal is to negatively politicize judicial races and destroy Georgians' trust in fair and impartial courts.”
State supreme court races nationwide have become much more political in recent decades, creating contests like the one last year in Wisconsin, where a liberal judge backed by Democrats flipped the court after defeating a former justice supported by Republicans and anti-abortion groups in the most expensive state Supreme Court race.
Barrow's campaign is the first sign that trend might be arriving in Georgia, which has become a battleground in partisan elections. Many members of the state legal establishment view Barrow's tactics with distaste.
On Monday before Barrow announced his lawsuit, Pinson's campaign released a statement from five former state Supreme Court Justices, 12 former state bar presidents and two former Judicial Qualifications Commission officials warning that voters must demand "that our judges be nonpartisan and refrain from making public commitments about how they will decide cases and issues.
“The alternative is a partisan judiciary that is emboldened to put campaign promises and personal preferences above the Constitution and the law,” the statement said. “The alternative would mean the end of the rule of law, and if our state starts down that path, we fear that it will be very difficult to turn back later.”
Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson poses for a photo, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Atlanta. Ga. Pinson, is running against John Barrow in a nonpartisan election for Supreme Court Justice, in May. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
John Barrow speaks to a Democratic group in Hoschton, Ga., on Monday, April 15, 2024, seeking support in his race for the Georgia Supreme Court. Barrow is basing his campaign for the high court around his support for abortion rights as he challenges incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson in a nonpartisan election in May. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
Supreme Court Justice Andrew Pinson poses for a photo, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Atlanta. Ga. Pinson, is running against John Barrow in a nonpartisan election for Supreme Court Justice, in May. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
John Barrow speaks to a Democratic group in Hoschton, Ga., on Monday, April 15, 2024, seeking support in his race for the Georgia Supreme Court. Barrow is basing his campaign for the high court around his support for abortion rights as he challenges incumbent Justice Andrew Pinson in a nonpartisan election in May. (AP Photo/Jeff Amy)
ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden is delivering the commencement address at Morehouse College on Sunday, a key opportunity for an election-year appearance before a Black audience but one that also could directly expose him to the anger that some of these and other students across the country have been expressing over his staunch support for Israel in its war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
The White House hinted that Biden would reference the concerns of students and faculty at the male-only, historically Black college over his approach to the war. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “stay tuned,” when asked if the Democratic president would address the worries that sparked weeks of student protests on college campuses nationwide.
The speech, and a separate one Biden is giving later Sunday in the Midwest, is part of a burst of outreach to Black constituents by the president, who has watched his support among these voters soften since their strong backing helped put him in the Oval Office in 2020.
After speaking at Morehouse in Atlanta, Biden will travel to Detroit to address an NAACP dinner.
Georgia and Michigan are among a handful of states that will help decide November's expected rematch between Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump. Biden narrowly won Georgia and Michigan in 2020 and needs to repeat — with a boost from strong Black voter turnout in both cities.
Jean-Pierre said Biden has been looking forward to the Morehouse speech, as he does all of his commencement addresses. He has been writing the remarks himself, along with senior advisers, she said.
“When it comes to this difficult moment in time that we're in as we speak about the protests, he understands that there's a lot of pain,” Jean-Pierre said. “He understands that people have a lot of opinions and he respects that folks have a lot of opinions.”
Biden spent part of Saturday warming up for the big speech. He was greeted at Atlanta's airport by a group of past Morehouse graduates and playfully draped an arm around the shoulder of one. He later stopped at Mary Mac's Tea Room, a Black-owned restaurant that opened nearly 80 years ago, to briefly address about 50 supporters. A 2024 Morehouse graduate introduced him.
The president joked about being surrounded by “Morehouse Men."
Biden spent the back end of the past week reaching out to Black constituents. He met with plaintiffs and relatives of those involved in Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision that outlawed racial segregation in public schools. He also met with members of the “Divine Nine” Black fraternities and sororities and spoke with members of the Little Rock Nine, who helped integrate a public school in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.
Morehouse's announcement that Biden would be the commencement speaker drew some backlash among the school’s faculty and supporters who oppose Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war. Some Morehouse alumni circulated an online letter condemning school administrators for inviting Biden and soliciting signatures to pressure Morehouse President David Thomas to rescind it.
The letter claimed that Biden’s approach to Israel amounted to support of genocide in Gaza and was out of step with the pacifism expressed by Martin Luther King Jr., Morehouse's most famous graduate.
The Hamas Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 people. Israel's offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials.
In an extended interview with The Associated Press, Thomas sought to play down the prospect of students protesting during the ceremony. He held up the all-male campus as a place that, like other historically Black colleges and universities, can balance social justice and political activism with a sense of order and decorum befitting commencement and a presidential address.
“I think you will find on a spectrum that we represent both ends – those who are vehemently opposed to the president coming to speak and those at the other end who think it’s a great thing ... and who don’t see a contradiction between their feelings about what’s going on in Gaza and the president coming,” he said.
But some students at Morehouse and the adjacent campuses that make up the Atlanta University Center (AUC) remain staunchly opposed to Biden’s appearance. They accuse Thomas and Morehouse trustees of prioritizing status and establishment political alliances over the values the school espouses.
AUC students, faculty and alumni held a rally and die-in against Biden on Friday.
“If our illustrious HBCUs and administrators really loved the activism they claimed to be for and use as a marketing tool then they would ... stand with us as we pray to God, ‘From the West End to the West Bank,’” said Morehouse junior Lonnie White of Atlanta, among the students who participated in two AUC demonstrations in recent weeks.
Student protest leaders said they know of no organized protest plans within the commencement site itself.
“I don’t even have a ticket,” said Morehouse sophomore Anwar Karim, who led a petition calling on Thomas to rescind Biden’s invitation.
Karim said he expected some students to attend nearby gatherings planned previously to commemorate the birthday of Malcolm X, a Black leader often credited with advancing the Black Power philosophy as a Civil Rights-era alternative to King’s practice of civil disobedience.
Thomas said in the interview that silent, non-disruptive protests would be tolerated, but repeated a pledge to halt the ceremony if disruptions mount.
Former U.S. Rep Cedric Richmond, a Morehouse alumnus and Biden campaign co-chairman who helped broker the president’s appearance, called the graduation a “solemn event” and said the gravity of the moment should give potential protesters pause.
"I would hope that people will not interrupt a once-in-a-lifetime moment like that for those students and those parents and grandparents who are there to see these young men walk across that stage,” Richmond said.
In Detroit, Biden was set to visit a Black-owned small business before delivering the keynote address at the NAACP’s Freedom Fund dinner, which traditionally draws thousands of attendees. The speech gives Biden a chance to reach thousands of people in Wayne County, an area that has historically voted overwhelmingly Democratic but has shown signs of resistance to his reelection bid.
Wayne County also holds one of the largest Arab American populations in the nation, predominantly in the city of Dearborn. Leaders there were at the forefront of an “uncommitted” effort that received over 100,000 votes in the state’s Democratic primary and spread across the country.
A protest rally and march against Biden’s visit are planned for Sunday afternoon in Dearborn. Another protest rally is expected later that evening outside Huntington Place, the dinner venue.
Associated Press writer Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks on the grounds of Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, Jan. 11, 2022, in Atlanta. Biden will deliver the commencement address at Morehouse University Sunday, May 19, 2024, giving the Democrat a key spotlight on one of the nation's preeminent historically Black campuses but potentially exposing him to uncomfortable protests as he seeks reelection against Donald Trump. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
President Joe Biden, right, greets a young girl as he speaks with supporters at Mary Mac's Tea Room, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden speaks with supporters at Mary Mac's Tea Room, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden, right, greets Stacey Abrams at Mary Mac's Tea Room, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden speaks with supporters at Mary Mac's Tea Room, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden, third from right, poses with alumni of Morehouse College including Montgomery, Ala. Mayor Steven Reed, from left, Birmingham, Ala. Mayor Randall Woodfin, Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Marlon Kimpson, a member of the advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., and John Eaves, former chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, upon arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden, second from right, is greeted by alumni of Morehouse College including Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., from left, Marlon Kimpson, a member of the advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., upon arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden, second from right, is greeted by alumni of Morehouse College including Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., from left, Marlon Kimpson, a member of the advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations in the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Ga., upon arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Saturday, May 18, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
