Nels Peterson
2017 - Present
2024
7
Nels Peterson is a judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. He assumed office on January 1, 2017. His current term ends on December 31, 2024.
Peterson ran for re-election for judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. He won in the general election on May 21, 2024.
Peterson was appointed by Governor Nathan Deal (R) on November 9, 2016.[1] Peterson's appointment filled one of the two new seats on the supreme court created by law in 2016, increasing the number of supreme court justices from seven to nine. He took the bench on January 1, 2017.[2] "To read more about judicial selection in Georgia, click here.
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[3] Peterson received a confidence score of Strong Republican.[4] Click here to read more about this study.
Peterson was previously a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals. He was appointed to this court by Governor Deal (R) on October 29, 2015, and his term began on January 1, 2016.[5] Peterson was appointed to one of the three new seats on the Georgia Court of Appeals created by the expansion court from 12 to 15 judges in 2015.
Biography
Peterson earned his B.S. from Kennesaw State University in 2001 and received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2004.[6]
Peterson's career experience includes working as a law clerk for Judge Bill Pryor on the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He also worked for the firm King & Spalding, and served as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s (R) executive counsel. In 2012, he served as state Attorney General Sam Olens’ solicitor general.[5] He later became vice chancellor for legal affairs and secretary to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. He was appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals in 2016 and to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2017.
Elections
2024
See also: Georgia Supreme Court elections, 2024
General election
General election for Georgia Supreme Court
Incumbent Nels Peterson won election in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Nels Peterson (Nonpartisan) | 100.0 | 1,049,781 |
| Total votes: 1,049,781 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Peterson in this election.
2018
- See also: Georgia Supreme Court elections, 2018
General election
General election for Georgia Supreme Court
Incumbent Nels Peterson won election in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Nels Peterson (Nonpartisan) | 100.0 | 885,265 |
| Total votes: 885,265 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Selection method
- See also: Judicial selection in Georgia
There are nine justices on the Georgia Supreme Court, each chosen by popular vote in nonpartisan elections. They serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to retain their seats.[7]
The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.[7]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Nels Peterson did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[8]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[9]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Nels
Peterson
Georgien
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Strong Republican - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Held political office as a Republican
- Donated less than $2,000 to Republican candidates
- Received donations from Republican-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Peterson served on Governor Sonny Perdue’s (R) executive council. He donated $300 to Republican candidates and organizations. He received $2,500 from Koch Industries, an organization that regularly donates to Republican candidates. Peterson was appointed by Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in 2016. At the time of his appointment, Georgia was a Republican trifecta.
State supreme court judicial selection in Georgia
- See also: Judicial selection in Georgia
The nine justices on the Georgia Supreme Court are chosen by popular vote in nonpartisan elections. They serve six-year terms, after which they must run for re-election if they wish to retain their seats.[10]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
Chief justice
The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.[10]
Vacancies
If a vacancy appears on the court, the position is filled by assisted appointment. The governor chooses an appointee from a list of qualified candidates compiled by the judicial nominating commission. As of March 2023, the judicial nominating commission consisted of 35 members, each appointed by the governor. For each court vacancy, the commission recommends candidates, but the governor is not bound to the commission's choices and may choose to appoint a judge not found on the list.[11] If appointed, an interim judge must run in the next general election held at least six months after the appointment, and, if confirmed by voters, he or she may finish the rest of the predecessor's term.[10][12][13]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Daily Report, "Deal Appoints Five New Appellate Judges," November 9, 2016
- ↑ Georgia General Assembly, "House Bill 927," accessed November 15, 2016
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Bill Rankin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Gov. Deal appoints three to appeals court bench," October 29, 2015
- ↑ Martindale.com, "Nels Stefan David Peterson - Lawyer Profile," accessed July 18, 2021
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Governor Brian Kemp, "Executive Order," accessed March 29, 2023
- ↑ Governor Brian Kemp, "Gov. Kemp Names 35 to Judicial Nominating Commission," October 27, 2021
Federal courts:
Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Middle District of Georgia, Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Georgia
State courts:
Georgia Supreme Court • Georgia Court of Appeals • Georgia Superior Courts • Georgia State Courts • Georgia Business Court • Georgia Juvenile Courts • Georgia Probate Courts • Georgia Magistrate Courts • Georgia Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Georgia • Georgia judicial elections • Judicial selection in Georgia
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