Seasons Greetings Courts Journal Readers:
The Judicial Council of Georgia, chaired by Chief Justice Boggs, held a General Session on December 8th, which was live-streamed and archived. At that meeting, the Judicial Council voted on items from the Legislation and Judicial Workload Assessment Committees and heard reports regarding ARPA funding, judicial security, court interpreters, technology, budget, and court reporting matters. December 2023 wraps up the Judicial Council/AOC’s 50th anniversary celebration and our Judicial Fellow, Judge Tain Kell (ret.), made us one final video to close out the year. We are so grateful for his creativity and leadership this past year. We are also sharing a video interview done by Municipal Court Judge Lori Duff and Director Cynthia Clanton. We were delighted to add Superior Court Judge Sheryl Jolly and Magistrate Court Judge Robert Wolf to our “Meet the Members of the Judicial Council” webpage this month.
December saw the AOC’s final All Staff Meeting of 2023, during which we hosted a wellness panel featuring Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Dillard (an exercise enthusiast), Dr. Ann Rogers (a sleep expert) and Dhana Blissett (a registered dietitian and an expert on the concept of “Food as Medicine”). We’ve made a video of that one-hour conversation in case you missed it. We enjoyed Justice Bethel’s opening remarks at the successful Georgia Child Welfare Summit 2023. This year’s summit included over 600 people in attendance (not including their virtual attendees), with 39 sessions and over 40 speakers. The Supreme Court of Georgia’s Committee on Justice for Children, chaired by Justice Bethel, held their last meeting of the year. Thank you, Chief State Court Judge McClelland, for welcoming students from Forsyth Central High School’s Workplace Spanish class to observe interpreters in action and to discuss the importance of qualified interpreters in legal settings.
Bill of Rights Day is celebrated on December 15th every year, and we posted our animated video featuring Georgia judges reading each of the 10 amendments. We applaud Justices Sarah Hawkins Warren, Carla Wong McMillian, and Verda Colvin for their recent participation in the Georgia Center for Civic Engagement’s Youth Assembly Judicial Program and thank you to all the Justices who do ongoing civics education. We received a great report from Gilmer County’s 8th grade social studies teachers about Judge Galligan’s recent presentation to their students on the importance of civics and the role of the judicial branch. We share this moving video in honor of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who passed on December 1st. Justice O’Connor was a trailblazer in many ways, including as a champion to revitalize civics education. She founded iCivics in 2009, which provides a treasure trove of civics engagement materials–videos, video games, and more–which we encourage you to consider using when speaking with Georgia students.
Congratulations to Muscogee County Probate Court Judge Marc D’Antonio, who received the “Flame of Hope Award” for his work on mental health reform, specifically he serves as a leader for Georgia’s Assisted Outpatient Treatment initiative. While reading about Judge D’Antonio, we noticed this cool drone photo of the Council of Probate Court Judges. Don’t miss the Council of Accountability Court Judges newsletter and the Good Judge-ment Podcast episode 134: Closing Arguments in Criminal Cases, Part II. We leave you with another great drone photo posted by Judge Daughtrey of the Cook County Courthouse in all its festive finery.
Call on us anytime. Talk to you in January 2024!
Your JC/AOC Courts Journal team: Michelle Barclay, Noelle Lagueux-Alvarez, Bruce Shaw, and our contractor, John Ramspott