Supreme Court of Georgia Category Archives - Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog Published by Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer

United States Supreme Court Oral Arguments Should Be Televised For the Sake of the Rule of Law

October 21, 2025 | Robin Frazer Clark

I am sitting here in my office at my desk watching the Georgia Supreme Court oral arguments today, October 21, 2025, on my computer. I am able to do this because the Georgia Supreme Court televises live all of its oral arguments, even when it travels around the State of Georgia for special oral arguments. You and anyone in the world can watch oral arguments by going to the Georgia Supreme Court’s website and simply clicking LIVE Oral Arguments. It’s that easy and that simple. And that’s exactly as it should be.

The live feed of the Georgia Supreme Court focuses on each speaker, whether it is the attorney or the Justice and identifies each Justice as they ask questions. In this way, the public knows which Justice is speaking, and can see for itself how seriously the Court takes every matter before it. And how seriously every lawyer takes being before the Court. If any citizen of Georgia ever had any doubt about how the Georgia Supreme Court operates and how seriously it takes its oath to do Justice and uphold the Georgia Constitution, watching oral arguments would quickly alleviate that doubt. The Georgia Supreme Court’s live televised oral arguments allows every Georgia citizen (and really anyone in the world who is watching) to have complete confidence in our Georgia Justice System and in the degree of due process given to everyone before the Court. Any citizen can also go in person to the Georgia Supreme Court to watch oral arguments. The Court is open to the public for good reason. All of this engenders confidence in our legal system and the Rule of Law.

Now let’s turn to the United States Supreme Court, which, in my opinion, operates in the dark, just the opposite of the Georgia Supreme Court. The United States Supreme Court does NOT televise their oral arguments live, and does NOT have an open courtroom, and this leads to doubt about what it is doing, lack of confidence in its rulings and lack of respect of the Court by the general public. With the Court’s recent unprecedented uptick in the use of its so-called “emergency docket,” nicknamed “the Shadow Docket,” it goes further down in public opinion and confidence.

Georgia’s Attorney General Would Certainly Ban Abortion Medication Mifepristone

March 26, 2024 | Robin Frazer Clark

What is mifepristone, the abortion pill at center of US Supreme Court argument? | CNN
Today the United States Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in Case No. 23-235 FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION V. ALLIANCE FOR HIPPOCRATIC MEDICINE, a case in which certain physicians have sued the FDA alleging permitting the use of Mifepristone violates their rights. Much of the oral argument focuses on “standing,” i.e., whether these physicians even have the right to bring such a case against the FDA. I am listening right now live to the the SCOTUS oral arguments and even the super Conservative Justices seem extremely skeptical about standing. Here are the questions presented before the Supreme Court today:

QUESTION PRESENTED:

This case concerns mifepristone, a drug that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Georgia Tech Recognizes Justice Robert Benham with the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage

January 16, 2024 | Robin Frazer Clark

Robert Benham and his 1984 appointment with Georgia history
On Thursday, Feb. 8, Georgia Tech’s Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage will be presented to Retired Justice Robert Benham. There is not a more worthy recipient. I have admired Justice Benham for my entire legal career, spanning 35 years now. I highly recommend you listen to an interview of Justice Benham by University of Georgia Professor Paul Kurtz on Youtube. It is fascinating.

Back in 2013, when I was President of the State Bar of Georgia, I had the distinct honor of giving remarks at the 14^th Annual Justice Robert Benham Awards for Community Service. That’s right. The State Bar of Georgia Community Service Awards are aptly named in honor of Justice Benham. In light of Georgia Tech’s wonderful announcement that he will be receiving its Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Social Courage, I wanted to share again my remarks from that special day in 2013.

Remarks of President Robin Frazer Clark at the 2013 Justice Robert Benham Community Service Awards

Georgia Rules of Evidence Carry the Day in the Ross Harris Hot Car Death Appeal

June 23, 2022 | Robin Frazer Clark

You have probably heard by now that the Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday reversed the conviction of Ross Harris for murder for the death of his young child, Cooper Harris, who Ross Harris left in the back seat of a hot car for hours. I think the Court got it exactly right. Many people have some very strong opinions on both sides of this case. All you have to do is check the hashtag #RossHarris to see how polarized the public is on the case. The reversal was certainly big news not only in Georgia, but Nationwide. This was a closely watched case.

This may be Justice Nahmias’s final opinion on the Georgia Supreme Court, and he is going out with a bang. I never thought Mr. Harris should have been prosecuted for murder in the first place. We know through neuroscience that it takes very little time or effort to distract our brains. Just the slightest deviation in our typical routine can make you forget where you intended to go or that a baby is in the car with you. Season 2 of AJC’s podcast Breakdown makes this clear with even an example of an Arkansas judge, Judge Wade Naramore, who left his 19-month-old child in his car while he was in court, resulting in the child’s death. The judge’s 911 call is one of the most horrific calls you will ever hear. You’ll also hear about an elementary school principal who left her home early one morning with her baby in her car seat in the back seat. It was too early for her to drop the baby off at day care, so the school principal deviated from her typical, normal route to go pick up doughnuts. Then she drove to school. Hours later a teacher saw the baby in the back seat. They rushed to get her out but she was dead. That simple deviation to the doughnut shop made the elementary school principal forget her child was in the back in her carseat. I urge you to listen to the AJC’s podcast. Season Two is called “Death in a Hot Car.”

Today, there are many tools a parent can use to help you remember your child is in the back seat, e.g., Baby in Car Seat Alarms, that sound an alarm and flash lights in your car if you forget your child in his car seat. There are phone apps, e.g., Kars 4 Kids Safety, or Backseat App, that alert you to check for you child in the backseat. Even the GPS app WAZE has added a Child Alert to remind you to check on your child before getting out of your car. This shows that anyone can make this mistake and now there are tools to help you not make it. The National Safety Council has tracked children left in hot cars for over 20 years. It reported that in 2018, 52 children died being left in hot cars. Since 1998 over 800 kids were lost from vehicular heatstroke. Of these deaths, 24% occurred in employee parking lots, just like Cooper Harris. This is telling. For those who are adamant that “this would never happen to me,” we know through neuroscience that that belief is simply one created through a heuristic called “defense attribution.” “Defense Attribution” is defined as “bias or error in attributing cause for some event such that a perceived threat to oneself is minimized. For example, people might blame an automobile accident on the other driver’s mistake because this attribution lessens their perception that they themselves are responsible for the accident.” Our minds do this to us when there is something so horrific you can not imagine it ever happening to you. We also know that the worse the event, the stronger the human mind insists it would never happen to me. This is something personal injury attorneys often face with jurors in cases in which the injuries to the plaintiff are horrible.

Justice Harris P. Hines: Honoring a Legal Giant and a Gentleman

May 31, 2022 | Robin Frazer Clark

I recently had the honor of attending the dedication of the portrait of Justice Harris P. Hines and the portrait’s official installation at the Nathan Deal Judicial Center in the Georgia Supreme Court Courtroom. Justice Hines and I were good friends, and his beautiful wife, Helen Hines, remains my good friend. Helen spoke at the dedication and said this about her husband of 46 years:

“Harris will be remembered as a judge and as a justice who loved people, and served the citizens of Georgia. He will be remembered for how he touched the lives of others, traveling throughout the state for over four decades. He spoke to civic clubs and legal groups, delivered introductions and invocations, taught continuing legal education courses, judged mock trials and debates, moderated panel discussions, counseled anyone who sought his guidance or advice — greeting people with sincerity and warmth. He never seemed to tire of talking — I’m on stop right there. He never seemed to tire of talking — to them, and inquiring about their lives and their families. He cared about individuals and treated them all with respect and fairness. Hard work, courtesy, integrity and kindness are the real legacy Harris leaves,” she concluded.

Chief Justice David Nahmias spoke. Former Chief Justice Harold Melton (now private lawyer) spoke and said this about Justice Hines: “Everybody here knew and loved Justice Hines, and everybody has the same impression of him and of his kindness,” said Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders partner Harold Melton, who succeeded Hines as chief justice and was his close friend, though they were 23 years apart in age. But Melton said for this occasion he wanted to remember Hines as a lawyer. “It’s appropriate that we also talk about his legal legacy and his commitment to the fidelity of the law, how painstakingly he pored over the law and how determined he was to get it right,” Melton said.