Chief Justice David E. Nahmias announced Friday that he will resign from the Supreme Court of Georgia effective July 17, 2022, which is the last day of the Court’s next term.
In his hand-delivered letter of resignation to Gov. Brian Kemp, Chief Justice Nahmias noted his more than 12 years of service as a Justice on Georgia’s highest court, following almost 15 years of service as a federal prosecutor. During his time as a Justice, he has written more than 470 opinions and joined more than 2,700 others, filling 27 volumes of the Georgia Reports.
“I believe that I have contributed to making the decisional law of Georgia clearer, more consistent, and more faithful to the text and original understanding of our State’s Constitution and statutes,” he wrote.
Chief Justice Nahmias was appointed to the Supreme Court by then-Gov. Sonny Perdue in 2009 and won reelection to the bench in 2010 and 2016. He served as Presiding Justice from September 2018 until July 2021, when he became Chief Justice. Gov. Kemp will appoint a new Justice.
In his letter, Chief Justice Nahmias explained that, “after several months of reflection and prayer,” he has decided to spend more time with his family, including his new fiancée and children, one of whom will begin playing college football this fall and the other of whom will be a rising junior in high school. He has not yet decided what path his legal career will take next.
Chief Justice Nahmias explained that while he was ready to leave the Court now, “it will be better for the Court to continue my work on pending cases, limit any period without a full complement of Justices, and allow for an orderly transition to new leadership,” which is why his resignation will be effective at the end of the Court’s next term on July 17.
The son of immigrants from Egypt and Germany, Chief Justice Nahmias was born in Atlanta and graduated from Briarcliff High School in DeKalb County, where he was the state’s STAR Student in 1982. He attended Duke University, where he finished second in his class and summa cum laude, and Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served on the Law Review. Chief Justice Nahmias then served as a law clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1995, after practicing with a large law firm in Washington, D.C., Chief Justice Nahmias began almost 15 years of service as a federal prosecutor before being appointed to the Court. He served as a line prosecutor and as the United States Attorney in Atlanta, where he prosecuted and supervised many high-profile cases, and as a senior Justice Department official in Washington, where he oversaw terrorism cases and other matters for three years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
During his time on the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Nahmias has worked diligently to improve the administration of justice in Georgia through his leadership as Chair of the Judicial Council of Georgia, Chair of the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, Chair of the Court’s Justice for Children Committee, and liaison Justice for uniform court rules. He also worked to improve Georgia’s judicial ethics and discipline system, serving for many years as the liaison Justice for the Judicial Qualifications Commission and overseeing a major revision of the Georgia Code of Judicial Conduct and the Commission’s rules.
