Dozens of past Atlanta Bar Association presidents released a joint statement applauding judges for rejecting more than 60 lawsuits that aimed to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The statement was signed by 33 attorneys, whose leadership spans the past 50 years of the Atlanta Bar Association, a nonprofit that boasts more than 6,000 current members in metro Atlanta.
“We are proud and grateful that the judiciary stood tall and safeguarded our country,” the statement said. “By following the dictates of the rule of law, judges protected our democracy, and in the process, upheld the integrity of the co-equal judicial branch of government. We are all in their debt.”
Lawsuits were filed across several states, including Georgia, after Joe Biden was named the victor over President Donald Trump.
Seth Kirschenbaum, one of the signees, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the group thought it was important to speak out in support of the judiciary. The joint statement also condemned the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol.
“I haven’t heard enough about the courage and the responsibility of the judiciary, the way it handled those 60-plus lawsuits,” he said. “Every single lawsuit was dismissed, whether it was for lack of evidence or for lack of standing. Not one judge in the entire country gave oxygen to these lawsuits.”
According to various media reports, 63 post-election cases were either lost or withdrawn after being filed by Trump, the Republican Party or attorneys on their behalf. Their only legal victory was a Pennsylvania lawsuit from November, where a state judge ruled that a small number of mail-in ballots that were missing proof of identification would not be counted. The ruling did not change Biden’s victory in the state.
“The cynical attempts to overturn the election in the courts, and the violent disruption of the counting of the Electoral (College) votes, were assaults on the very heart of our democracy,” the joint statement said.
Kirschenbaum added that Americans need to be able to trust that judges will uphold the law over partisan political agendas. Many of the lawsuits alleging election fraud were struck down by Republican-appointed judges, including some who Trump appointed.
“In some ways, it’s a sad state of affairs that we have to praise people for doing their jobs,” Kirschenbaum said. “But we are in that state in America right now.”
Here’s a list of the 33 former Atlanta Bar Association presidents who signed the joint statement along with what year they served as president:
• Honorable T. Jackson Bedford Jr., 1994
• John A. Chandler, 1983
• William D. deGolian, 2002
• Harold E. Franklin Jr., 2015
• Paula J. Frederick, 1999
• Richard B. Herzog Jr., 2006
• W. Stell Huie, 1968
• W. Seaborn Jones, 1984
• Seth D. Kirschenbaum, 2001
• S. Wade Malone, 2003
• W. Ray Persons, 2007
• Elizabeth A. Price, 2005
• William M. Ragland Jr., 2004
• Lynn M. Roberson, 2012
• Christopher Glenn Sawyer, 1989
• Jacquelyn H. Saylor, 2014
• David N. Schaeffer, 2009
• Jack Spalding Schroder Jr., 1982
• William H. Schroder Jr., 1978
• Honorable E. Clay Scofield III, 1996
• Rita A. Sheffey, 2011
• Gregory Stuart Smith, 1998
• Shayna M. Steinfeld, 2008
• Paul M. Talmadge Jr., 1987
• Michael B. Terry, 2010
• Margaret H. Vath, 2017
• Ryan K. Walsh, 2019
• W. Terence Walsh, 1991
• Wade H. Watson, III, 2013
• Carolyn S. Weeks, 1990
• Ben L. Weinberg Jr., 1969
• Robert G. Wellon, 1986
• Honorable Melvin K. Westmoreland, 1988
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