Quite an eight years for Justice Michael Boggs

From the publisher –

It was just eight years ago when then-Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Michael Boggs was vilified by the political Left when he was nominated for a federal judgeship. The attacks led key Democrats in the U.S. Senate to abandon him, and he was denied a confirmation vote by that body. But more about that later.

Michael P. Boggs

The good news for him is that now-Supreme Court Justice Boggs has been unanimously elected by his colleagues to become the court’s next chief justice.

After failing to get the federal judgeship, Boggs was appointed in 2016 to the state Supreme Court by then-Gov. Nathan Deal. And he was elected to a six-year term two years later. But prior to his judicial service, the Waycross native served two terms in the state House of Representatives representing a conservative southeastern Georgia district.

During Boggs’ tenure, from 2001 to 2004, he voted in favor of allowing the public to vote on retaining the Confederate flag emblem as part of the state flag. And, he supported legislation permitting the public to vote on a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in the state.

Needless to say, the Left didn’t appreciate it. And in 2014 it sought revenge. That was the year that then-President Barack Obama nominated Boggs to a federal judgeship.

Why, you ask?

It was part of a deal with then-U.S. Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson to fill some empty seats on the federal bench. The two Republicans had been blocking Democrat Obama’s nominations in Georgia and finally agreed to a deal allowing Obama’s choice of Jill Pryor’s nomination to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to go through if Obama agreed to their choices of Boggs and Mark Cohen.

But U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, who chaired the Judiciary Committee, told the New York Times “it had become clear after talking to his colleagues that Boggs, under fire from Democrats for his conservative positions, could not win committee support.” Boggs’ nomination was opposed by HRC Atlanta and Georgia Equality among a host of other left-wing groups.

The federal judgeship wasn’t meant to be. According to the Times at the time, “Boggs earns the unusual distinction as the first Obama judicial nominee … to fail because of Democratic opposition.”

But that was then. Now, eight years later, Boggs is honored by high court colleagues— both conservative and liberal— with his chief justice “confirmation.”