Perdue installs his own lawyer on state's highest court

<p>Gov. Sonny Perdue installed his former legal aide, Harold Melton, on the Georgia Supreme Court Thursday, calling him a man of deep integrity and conscience.</p><p>Melton becomes the third black among the seven judges on the court and is the first justice since 1868 to be appointed by a Republican governor.</p><p>Perdue has said he believes Melton will be a strict constructionist on a court that some Republicans believe has ventured too far into judicial activism.</p><p>But there was little talk of judicial philosophy during the 30-minute swearing-in ceremony for Melton which filled the chambers of the House of Representatives with friends and well-wishers.</p><p>All seven current members of the Supreme Court were present, including retiring Chief Justice Norman Fletcher, whose seat Melton will fill.</p><p>"Harold thinks that he's the happiest person in this room today," Fletcher said. "Actually, Harold, I probably am because I've left you with some cases I just can't think of what to do. And the next happiest man is Justice Harris Hines, who's been the junior justice for 10 years."</p><p>Perdue, who plucked Melton from the state law department at the beginning of his administration, said he came to rely on his legal advisor's "sound, stable voice of integrity" as time went on.</p><p>He described Melton as someone who can listen to facts without prejudging them and then "give a sound, agenda-less decision based on principles of righteousness and doing the right thing."</p><p>The Supreme Court is the state's highest appeals court. Perdue has been looking to put his own mark on the court for much of his administration, springing in part from a 2003 ruling which went against him.</p><p>Perdue also was an active player in an effort last year to replace Justice Leah Sears on the court, backing a challenger widely supported by conservatives. The effort failed. Sears won re-election with 62 percent of the vote and she will become the court's chief justice on June 28.</p><p>Melton, 38, said his approach to the new job will be to read the law and apply it. "I'm not naive enough to think that it's as simple as that, but I am idealistic enough to believe that is the benchmark, that is the bedrock upon which judicial interpretation rests, keeping in mind at all times that people and lives are at stake."</p><p>Chuck Clay, a Marietta attorney and former state senator, said Melton "will be as much as one can be a by-and-large strict constructionist, but he has a deep and abiding consciousness that the system cannot be fair unless it is fair to all."</p><p>___</p><p>Dick Pettys has covered Georgia government and politics since 1970</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/6/143861