<P> The Supreme Court of Georgia is the highest judicial authority of the US state of Georgia . The court was established in 1845 as a three - member panel . Since 1896, the justices (increased in number to six, then to seven in 1945, and finally to nine in 2017) have been elected by the people, and today those elections are non-partisan . Three of the state's nine sitting Justices were re-elected, all unopposed, in 2012 . </P> <P> The first Chief Justice of the Court was Joseph Henry Lumpkin, who was appointed in 1863 . There have been 27 Chief Justices, and the current Chief Justice of the Court is Harris Hines . </P>

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