Of courts and kings and common law
The Georgia Supreme Court, in what is considered a landmark decision, ruled in June that citizens of the state who believe a state law is unconstitutional are prohibited, by state law, from suing the state over the constitutionality of state law.
Aside from the apparent self-insulation of a legal framework that seems to combine “Catch-22” with the surreal circularity of an M.C. Escher sketch, the ruling seems based on an antiquated and fundamentally undemocratic legal principle.
That’s not a criticism of the high court; if that’s what the law says, that’s what the law says, and the court says that’s what the law says.
But as reported earlier this month by Greg Bluestein in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the court’s decision held that “the state, its agencies and its officials are shielded from litigation under the legal doctrine of sovereign immunity, rooted in a centuries-old English principle that ‘the king can do no wrong.’”
That’s not just a Georgia thing; most American law is derived from British Common Law (except for Louisiana, where state law is descended from the Napoleonic Code … but Louisiana has always been sort of its own domain anyway).
Still, the United States doesn’t (or isn’t supposed to) have a king, much less a state government. Laws here are made by human beings in legislative bodies that don’t (or aren’t supposed to) claim “divine right.”
Georgia does have a governor, and the one in office now has empaneled a group, the Court Reform Council, to study how Georgians might have some legal recourse against what they think is an unjust state law. That council’s recommendations, the AJC reported, could be included in Gov. Nathan Deal’s legislative agenda for 2018, his last full year in office. Among those supporting changes is the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, which said in a release that the state needs to “continue enjoying a reputation for being an effective, efficient and fair legal system.”
Controversy? Nope …
Political battles and culture wars might be raging elsewhere around the country over statues and monuments and portraits and plaques and other tributes to historic figures. But one Georgia community is spending more than $10,000 in taxpayer money to recast several public displays of local history, and there’s not a lot of public outcry.
Former Kennesaw Mayor Leonard Church’s name is on five city government buildings. That wasn’t considered a problem until 2015, when Church pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation and four counts of sexual exploitation involving a 9-year-old boy. Church is now serving not in city government, but in state custody — specifically, an 18-year sentence at Long State Prison near Savannah.
Kennesaw City Council voted last week to remove the five plaques with Church’s name and cast five new ones: “… We felt it was something we needed to do,” Mayor Derek Easterling told the Marietta Daily Journal.
This isn’t “revising” history. This is facing up to it.
This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 5:57 PM with the headline "Of courts and kings and common law."