Carol Hunstein
From Judgepedia
| Georgia Supreme Court |
|---|
|
| Sitting justices |
| Leah Ward Sears Carol Hunstein Robert Benham George Carley Hugh Thompson Harris Hines Harold Melton |
| Former justices |
| Georgia on Judgepedia |
Contents |
Carol W. Hunstein is the presiding justice on the Georgia Supreme Court. She was appointed to the position in November 1992 by then-Gov. Zell Miller. She is the second woman in history to serve as a permanent member of the Court. In 1984 Justice Hunstein won election to the Superior Court of DeKalb County. Prior to serving on the bench, Justice Hunstein was in private practice. She has been a member of the Georgia Bar since 1976. Her current six-year term on the court expires in 2012.
Legal background
Justice Hunstein received her juris doctor in 1976 from Stetson University College of Law. She received a bachelor of science degree from Florida Atlantic University in 1972 and an associate of arts degree from Miami-Dade Junior College in 1970.
As a superior court judge, she was active at the county, state and national levels. She chaired many DeKalb County Committees including the Alimony and Support Unit Committee, the Diversion Center Committee, the Probation Committee and the Domestic Violence Task Force. In 1989 then Chief Justice Marshall appointed her to Chair the Georgia Commission on Gender Bias in the Judicial System which issued its report to the Supreme Court in 1991. She is a former district director of the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) and chaired the local host committee for the NAWJ 1995 Annual Conference which was held in Atlanta.
She was the first woman to serve as President of the Council of Superior Court Judges. By virtue of that office, she was the first person ever to have served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court before becoming a permanent member of the Court. (In 1991 all seven sitting justices recused themselves and designated seven superior court judges to hear and decide a case. Justice Hunstein, as President of the Council, served by designation as Chief Justice.) Presiding Justice Carol W. Hunstein by appointment of Governor Miller and, later, Governor Barnes, Justice Hunstein chaired the 1993, 1998 and 2001 state commissions on child support guidelines. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Justice Center of Atlanta and the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. She is a former Rosalynn Carter Honorary Fellow in Public Policy at the Emory University Institute on Women's Studies.
Commissions
She currently chairs the Georgia Commission on Access and Fairness which is charged with implementing the recommendations of the Commission on Gender Bias and the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Bias. She also chairs the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee and the Georgia Commission on Interpreters. She is a member of the Bleckley Inn of Court, and has served as liaison to the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism since 1992.
Academic service
In the course of her career, she has received many honors including an honorary LL.D. from Stetson University College of Law where she is also an honorary member of the Board of Overseers, a commendation for outstanding service from the Georgia General Assembly, the Emory University Legal Association for Women Students' Public Service Award, the DeKalb County Women's Network "Women Who Have Made a Difference" Award, the Joseph T. Tuggle Professionalism Award and, in 1999, the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession's Margaret Brent Award. Florida Atlantic University has inducted her into their Hall of Fame. She recently received the Commitment to Equality Award from the State Bar of Georgia Committee on Women and Minorities in the Profession.
2006 election campaign
Hunstein's last election campaign took place in 2006. Her campaign raised and spent $1,382,015 in the course of winning re-election.[1] Hunstein's opponent was Mike Wiggins, a former Bush administration lawyer whose campaign raised $311,107.[2] Wiggins was supported by Gov. Sonny Perdue in a campaign that was marked by fierce attack ads.[3]
Hunstein gave a speech after she won re-election discussing her view of her opposition and the nature of the contest between the two of them.
