GA Supremes to Fani Willis: You’re Out!

The Georgia Supreme Court left the Court of Appeals’ disqualification of Fani Willis in place and hands the mess to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia (PAC) to find a new prosecutor. The prosecutions are not dead, but they are not moving, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling headlines, not the simple truth.

Justice Pinson concurred in the denial and reminded everyone what the Court is supposed to do at this stage. Certiorari is for big questions of Georgia law presented in a clean posture, not for micromanaging a single record with a thousand thorny branches. Even if the “appearance of impropriety” standard deserves a closer look, this case got to the Court on a narrow remedy question and with a sloppy vehicle, so the better course was to leave it alone and wait for a case that squarely tees up the statewide rule.

Justice McMillian, with Justices Ellington and Colvin, dissented and would have taken it now. Their point is simple and not crazy. Whether “appearance of impropriety” can disqualify a prosecutor matters to every courtroom in Georgia, the case law is muddy, and our ethics rules stopped using that language years ago, so the Court should update the doctrine or at least reconcile the conflict. In other words, if you want clarity for prosecutors and defendants alike, today was the day to provide it.

Since the disqualification stands, the file moves to PAC. They will look for a conflict prosecutor who is willing to take over, inherit a peach grove full of filings, and decide whether to run the original play, narrow the case to something manageable, or spike it and go home. Until someone says yes, this thing sits, but not forever. More on that in a second.

Willis released a statement saying, “While I disagree with the decision of the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court’s divided decision not to review it, I respect the legal process and the courts,” and then she wished courage to whoever comes next. The missing piece is any ownership of how we arrived here. She made sure her boyfriend got paid big money, and what the public got in return were vacation photos with Nathan Wade. That is not a legal training problem, that is a judgment problem. She has spent a lot of time telling Republicans under the Gold Dome that they do not know the law which is just a really dumb thing to say. And after today’s order she ought to consider that the issue is not how many classes she has taken, it is whether she can exercise basic judgment on behalf of the people of Georgia. The Court effectively answered that question for these cases, no, she cannot.

PAC put out a statement today laying out the mechanics of what we can expect to happen next. When the cases are sent back, PAC gets formal notice that Willis is out, and the hunt for a replacement starts. This is not their first rodeo. Remember the Burt Jones matter: after Judge McBurney recused Willis, PAC took the referral, no outside DA wanted it, and Executive Director Pete Skandalakis carried the ball himself and closed it after a full review. That history matters right now because if no one wants the political grenade, Pete ends up holding the pin… again.

What Happens Next, Realistically

• Appointment roulette. PAC calls around to DAs and qualified attorneys, and if someone accepts, we get a new leader who will either try to salvage the broad case or trim it to the parts that can actually be tried.
• No takers. If the political heat scares off the usual candidates, PAC can keep the matter, review the record, and make the call, just like the Burt Jones decision. And after a thorough and well documented review, that case was dropped.
• Delay by default. Even with a willing prosecutor, conflicts must be cleared, teams must be organized, and months of reading must happen before a single strategic decision gets made. The calendar will slip, because there is no other way.

The concurrence said this was the wrong vehicle to make big law. The dissent said the question is too important to wait. The net effect is the same for the rest of us. The case is in limbo while PAC looks for someone with the appetite, the bandwidth, and the judgment to pick it up. If that person exists, we will find out soon enough. If not, we already know how this story can end.

Or, and I’m just spitballing here, maybe a competent prosecutor can pick up the case and dismiss it by Wednesday so we can all go back to preparing for the Georgia-Bama game next weekend. A man can dream.