No. 19-6916

Sherri Jefferson v. Supreme Court of Georgia

Lower Court: Georgia
Docketed: 2019-12-11
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedRelisted (3)IFP
Tags: attorney-discipline disbarment due-process fifth-amendment fourteenth-amendment legal-precedent professional-responsibility self-incrimination
Latest Conference: 2020-03-27 (distributed 3 times)
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. Does this Court's opinion in Spevack v. Klein, 385 U.S. 511 (1967), In re Ruffalo, 390 U.S. 544 (1968), and North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v FTC, 135 S. Ct. 1101 (2015) require that the order of disbarment be reversed, remanded, or vacated and set aside for violation of the Due Process and Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment under the U.S. and Georgia Constitution.

2. Whether the State Bar of Georgia disciplinary proceedings comport with the Petition Clause of the First Amendment?

3. Whether the proper standard for taking the Fifth Amendment in "quasi-criminal" attorney disciplinary proceedings authorize an adverse inference that the disciplinary allegations charged by the State are true, especially where the record is devoid of evidence.

4. Whether the Supreme Court of Georgia abused its discretion in examining what it means for attorney disciplinary cases to be "quasi criminal" in nature when it comes to Fifth Amendment rights.

5. Whether Georgia's attorney discipline procedures (use of conflicted prosecutors, investigators, special masters and review board panelist aka active market participants, suspensions, collateral estoppel, standard of proof, rules of evidence, discovery, full and fair opportunity to be heard and to litigate and default judgement) comport to constitutional due process standards.

6. Whether the Supreme Court of Georgia abused its discretion when it failed to protect the petitioner from abuse by the State Bar of Georgia and their active market participants under the federal constitutional standard for enforcement of professional misconduct where the procedures lack uniformity and subjects' attorneys to arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory enforcement and divergence from national standards or no standards at all.

7. Whether the State Bar of Georgia's formal complaint, report and recommendation, and order of disbarment by virtue of default should be reversed, dismissed or vacated for failure to comply with the requirements of the State Bar of Georgia's Professional Code of Conduct Rule 4-213 and 4-219 hearing provisions, and Georgia law governed by O.G.G.A. 15-19-32 authorizing a trial by jury.

Question Presented (AI Summary)

Does this Court's opinion in Spevack v. Klein, 385 U.S. 511 (1967), In re Ruffalo, 390 U.S. 544 (1968), and North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v FTC, 135 S. Ct. 1101 (2015) require that the order of disbarment be reversed, remanded, or vacated and set aside for violation of the Due Process and Self-Incrimination Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and violation of the Due Process and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Docket Entries

2020-03-30
Rehearing DENIED.
2020-03-11
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 3/27/2020.
2020-02-26
Petition for Rehearing filed.
2020-02-24
Petition DENIED.
2020-01-21
Application (19A648) denied by the Court.
2020-01-16
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2020.
2020-01-07
Waiver of right of respondent Supreme Court of GA to respond filed.
2019-12-30
Application (19A648) DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/17/2020.
2019-12-18
Application (19A648) refiled and submitted to Justice Kagan.
2019-12-18
Application (19A648) referred to the Court.
2019-12-17
Application (19A648) denied by Justice Thomas.
2019-12-03
Application (19A648) for a stay, submitted to Justice Thomas.
2019-11-21
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due January 10, 2020)

Attorneys

Sherri Jefferson
Sherri Jefferson — Petitioner
Supreme Court of GA
Andrew Alan PinsonOffice of the Georgia Attorney General, Respondent