Are racial politics behind recent Georgia court district splits? One journalist thinks so

In the past few years, attempts to break up some of Georgia's judicial circuits have hinged upon one simple argument. Judges have high caseloads, and creating smaller circuits could ease their burden. But a new look at several of these attempts highlights some of the possible racial motivations behind drawing new lines.

Writing for The Guardian, independent journalist Justin Glawe reports on how these new districts undercut the power of Black voters to elect their own district attorneys. Glawe spoke with GPB’s Peter Biello.

Peter Biello: You write about the new judicial circuit of Columbia, which was carved out of a district that covered the city of Augusta a couple of years ago. And that, you say, was inspired by the election of Jared Williams, the circuit's first Black DA there in 2020. How did you reach the conclusion that you did about why this was done?

Justin Glawe: Well, it was pretty simple. There was a lawsuit that was filed after that circuit split was enacted. And as part of the discovery of that lawsuit, they found that Barry Fleming, a prominent Republican lawmaker here in Georgia, the day after Williams's election, had texted the chair of the County Commission in Columbia (Doug Duncan) and said, "Do you guys want your own circuit?" So that was pretty obvious. But it took a little bit of digging to get there. That had been reported previously, I think, by the newspaper in Augusta. And — but none of the folks there were willing to say that when I sort of started looking into the rationale behind it.

Peter Biello: I see. And how do you know it was a racial thing and not simply a political difference?

Justin Glawe: I think that they would say that race had nothing to do with it and that if they were going to make an argument as to why they enacted the split, they would say that it was because of the politics of Jared Williams, who frames himself as a progressive prosecutor.

Peter Biello: Regardless of what the intent of the people involved truly was ... this does have an impact on Black voters. How would you describe that impact?

Justin Glawe: The initial impact is pretty obvious, right? The people of that area elected Jared Williams to be their district attorney. And then Barry Fleming and Doug Duncan, and I'm assuming some others got together and they essentially wrote Jared Williams out of that position for many of the people who elected him — not all, because Jared Williams is still the district attorney for Richmond and Burke counties, which were the other two counties in that judicial circuit. But for the people who were in Columbia County who elected him, all of a sudden, instead of having Jared Williams as their district attorney, now they had a guy by the name of Bobby Christine, who is a more conservative-leaning prosecutor. So that was the first immediate impact and result of the judicial split.

As far as how it plays out in the nuts and bolts of how the legal system works there. I can't really answer that right now. All I can say is that I think that there's a lot of people who are interested in that and who are looking into that.

Peter Biello: And this is news now, even though it happened a few years ago, in part because this approach is becoming more common in Georgia. Where else have you seen Republicans attempting to break up districts?

Justin Glawe: Shortly after this occurred, the folks in Oconee County elected the state's first Latina district attorney, who also was sort of a self-styled progressive prosecutor. The Republicans there were more upfront about it. They said, "We don't like your politics, so we're going to try to create our own judicial circuit out of Oconee County." That eventually failed because the State Judicial Council of Georgia, which is sort of the governing body of the court system here, said, "You guys don't have a logistical reason why you need your own circuit. You can't just say you don't like the district attorney, so you want your own circuit." So that failed.

Since then, there have been proposed splits in Banks County, and the most recent one is a split that has been proposed by the Coweta County District Attorney. That's a little complicated in terms of how the split would work, but those are the two most recent ones.

Peter Biello: You've written that in some districts there has been a desire for a split for years, in part because, in some cases, members of both parties believe that doing so would help the courts that are burdened by high caseloads. Though not everyone thinks this is true. What do you make of that argument — that a breaking up the circuit would help with workload management?

Justin Glawe: I think it can be both things. I think that in the case of Columbia County, Sen. Harold Jones had been in favor of a split there for a long time.

Peter Biello: He was a Democrat.

Justin Glawe: A Democrat, he's a Black Democrat. That Columbia County split was approved in the Legislature by lots of Democrats, many of them minorities. I think that they have valid arguments as to [why] they voted for it, as to why they approved the split. But I think it can be both things. I think that it can be racially and politically motivated on the part of Republicans who sort of don't want to be under the thumb of "progressive prosecutors," and I think that also people in the Democratic Party and on the left can approve of these splits because there are real benefits to their citizens. The problem, though, is that in my mind and in my reporting, it sort of leans more the other way — that this is less about reducing case loads and this is more about the politics behind who a prosecutor is and the types of crimes that they are going to pursue.