John Ellington

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John Ellington is a judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. He assumed office on December 18, 2018. His current term ends on December 31, 2030.

Ellington ran for re-election for judge of the Georgia Supreme Court. He won in the general election on May 21, 2024.

Ellington first became a member of the Georgia Supreme Court through a nonpartisan election. He was first elected to the court in 2018. 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.^[1] Ellington received a confidence score of Indeterminate.^[2] Click here to read more about this study.

Ellington was previously a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals from 1999 to 2018. He was appointed to the court by Governor Roy E. Barnes (D) on July 12, 1999. Ellington was then elected to the court in 2000 and re-elected in 2006 and 2012.^[3]

Ellington served as chief judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals from January 17, 2012, to June 25, 2013.^[4]

Biography

John Ellington was born in Vidalia, Georgia. Ellington earned his bachelor's degrees in business and political science from the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1980. He earned his B.B.A. in accounting from the University of Georgia in 1982 and received his J.D. from the University of Georgia Law School in 1985.^[3]

Ellington's career experience includes working as a general trial lawyer and a partner with the law firm of Andrew, Threlkeld, & Ellington. In 1991, he was appointed to serve as judge of the Treutlen County State Court. He also served as a municipal court judge and later as a superior court judge serving 29 counties.^[3] He was a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals from 1999 to 2018. Governor Roy E. Barnes (D) appointed Ellington to the court on July 12, 1999. He was then elected to the court in 2000 and re-elected in 2006 and 2012.^[3] He served on the court of appeals until 2018, when he was elected to the Georgia Supreme Court.

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Incumbent John Ellington won election in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 21, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Ellington (Nonpartisan)	100.0	1,059,108

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,059,108
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

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Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Ellington in this election.

2018

See also: Georgia Supreme Court elections, 2018

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

John Ellington won election in the general election for Georgia Supreme Court on May 22, 2018.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		John Ellington (Nonpartisan)	100.0	898,767

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 898,767
= 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.
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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.^[5]

The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.^[5]

Qualifications

To serve on this court, a judge must be:

a resident of Georgia and
admitted to practice law for at least seven years.^[5]

2012

See also: Georgia judicial elections, 2012

Ellington ran unopposed in the general primary election on July 31, 2012. He was re-elected to the Georgia Court of Appeals after receiving 99.73 percent of the vote.^[6]

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

John Ellington 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.

John Ellington campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Georgia Supreme Court	Won general	$1,500	$41,429
Grand total			$1,500	$41,429
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

Analysis

See also: Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship and Ballotpedia Courts: Determiners and Dissenters

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.^[7]

The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:

Strong Democrat
Mild Democrat
Indeterminate^[8]
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.

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John
Ellington

Georgia

Partisan Confidence Score:
Indeterminate
Judicial Selection Method:
Elected
Key Factors:
- Donated over $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- State was a Republican trifecta at time of appointment

Partisan Profile

Details:

Ellington donated $2,400 to Democratic candidates and organizations. At the time of his election, 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.^[9]

Qualifications

To serve on this court, a judge must be:

a resident of Georgia; and
admitted to practice law for at least seven years.^[9]

Chief justice

The chief justice is selected by peer vote and serves in that capacity for four years.^[9]

Vacancies

See also: How vacancies are filled in state supreme courts

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.^[10] 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.^[9]^[11]^[12]

The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.

External links

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Officeholder

Georgia Supreme Court

Website

Footnotes

↑ 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.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Georgia Court of Appeals, "John J. Ellington," accessed July 18, 2021
↑ Georgia Court of Appeals, "Chief Judges," accessed July 18, 2021
↑ ^5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014
↑ Georgia Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Election Results," accessed May 10, 2015
↑ 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.
↑ ^9.0 ^9.1 ^9.2 ^9.3 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

v • e

Georgia Supreme Court
Judicial selection in Georgia • 2024 elections • Courts in Georgia

Current judges

Charlie Bethel, Michael P. Boggs, Verda Colvin, John Ellington, Shawn Ellen LaGrua, Carla W. McMillian, Nels Peterson, Andrew Pinson, Sarah Warren

Former judges

Robert Benham, Keith Blackwell, George Carley, Britt Grant, Harris Hines, Carol Hunstein, Harold Melton, David Nahmias, Hugh Thompson

Georgia courts

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 Tax 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

[1] We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.

[2] The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.

[bio-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 Georgia Court of Appeals, "John J. Ellington," accessed July 18, 2021

[4] Georgia Court of Appeals, "Chief Judges," accessed July 18, 2021

[gen-5] 5.0 ^5.1 ^5.2 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014

[6] Georgia Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Election Results," accessed May 10, 2015

[7] 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.

[8] 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.

[GAgen-9] 9.0 ^9.1 ^9.2 ^9.3 American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia," archived October 2, 2014

[nom-10] American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Judicial Nominating Commissions," archived October 2, 2014

[11] Governor Brian Kemp, "Executive Order," accessed March 29, 2023

[12] Governor Brian Kemp, "Gov. Kemp Names 35 to Judicial Nominating Commission," October 27, 2021

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John Ellington

Contents

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Endorsements

2018

General election

General election for Georgia Supreme Court

Selection method

Qualifications

2012

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign finance summary

Analysis

John
Ellington

State supreme court judicial selection in Georgia

Qualifications

Chief justice

Vacancies

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2024 Elections

2024 Election analysis

2025 Elections

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