Nine are candidates for state Supreme Court vacancy

Atlanta’s U.S. attorney, five judges and three private attorneys were nominated Wednesday to be Georgia’s next Supreme Court justice.

Gov. Sonny Perdue, who will make the appointment, released the names of the nine candidates. They were recommended by the state Judicial Nominating Commission, which interviewed 38 applicants for the coveted position Monday and Tuesday.

Perdue will fill an opening on the seven-member court created by the departure of Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears, who stepped down Tuesday.

During a ceremony Wednesday in the Supreme Court’s courtroom, former Gov. Zell Miller swore in Carol Hunstein as the new chief justice and George Carley as presiding justice.

Perdue dropped by before the ceremony to give Hunstein his regards. He does not have to pick the state’s next justice from the short list of nominees. But he will meet with each one individually before making his decision.

The nine nominees are:

? Stephen Louis A. Dillard, 39, a Macon lawyer, specializes in appellate practice and complex litigation and once handled indigent defense cases in Bibb County. Dillard worked for the McCain-Palin campaign and is a district chairman for Secretary of State Karen Handel’s gubernatorial campaign.

? Jim Kelly, 53, an Atlanta lawyer, has served as director of international affairs for the Washington-based Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies. In 2004, Kelly co-authored the “faith and family services” amendment, which would have allowed state tax dollars to be given to religious institutions for the care of the elderly, homeless and orphaned.

? David Nahmias, 44, has been U.S. attorney in Atlanta since November 2004. Nahmias supervised the corruption prosecution of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell, and is a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and a former deputy assistant attorney general.

? Superior Court Judge Samuel Ozburn, 57, presides over cases in Newton and Walton counties. Ozburn, appointed to the bench in 1995 by Miller, has led a special Council of Superior Court Judges committee on court security.

? Gwinnett County Superior Court Judge William Ray, 46, was appointed to the bench by Gov. Roy Barnes in 2002. He is a former Lawrenceville trial lawyer and was a GOP state senator from 1996 to 2002.

? Fulton County Superior Court Judge Craig Schwall Sr., 45, was put on the State Court bench by Perdue in 2003 and in his current position in 2005. Schwall is a former Fulton County Republican Party chairman.

? Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley, 56, a former State Court judge, won election to her current judgeship in 1992. Staley was on the short lists for two federal judgeships during the Bush administration.

? Henry County State Court Chief Judge Benjamin Studdard III, 47, has sat on the bench since 1999. He is a former city attorney for Hampton.

? Rocco Testani, 42, an Atlanta lawyer for the Sutherland firm, focuses on complex business and commercial litigation. Testani, who gave $1,000 to Perdue’s re-election campaign, defended the state in a now-dismissed lawsuit brought by rural school districts that claimed insufficient state funding resulted in low student achievement.