Votelaw, Edward Still's blog on law and politics

The Christian Coalition of Georgia is putting statewide judicial candidates on the spot, asking them to declare their positions on abortion, school prayer, homosexual conduct and other hot-button issues.

The group's effort puts it at odds with a private organization that has been asking candidates to sign a pledge to follow old rules on campaign behavior and to refrain from filling out the surveys.

Thanks to a federal court ruling in 2002, this is the first election in Georgia where judicial candidates have been allowed to declare positions on issues and offer unfettered criticism of their opponents.

That's good news for the Christian Coalition, which thinks voters are entitled to know a judicial candidate's position on broad social issues that may come before the courts.

But the Georgia Committee for Ethical Judicial Campaigns believes it's unethical for judicial candidates to commit themselves to positions on issues that may come before them in court. The latter group mailed letters to the candidates on Thursday, requesting them to conduct their campaigns in an ethical manner and to refrain from announcing positions on matters that may come before them if they are elected to the bench. -- Christian Coalition Tests Judicial Candidates (Fulton County Daily Report)