Baker asks court to drop case on who calls legal shots

ATLANTA -- If Attorney General Thurbert Baker has his way, the question of whether he or the governor calls the state's legal shots won't be settled anytime soon by Georgia's Supreme Court, even though it is now pondering that very question.

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Baker on Thursday asked the court to dismiss a suit which raises the issue, arguing it was rendered moot by a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court.

The dispute arose in January when Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered the Democratic attorney general to drop a redistricting appeal to the nation's highest court. The suit was regarded as a test of who makes Georgia's legal decisions.

Baker refused, Perdue sued and the case was argued last month before Georgia's highest appeals court. But it has not yet ruled and, earlier Thursday, the federal high court issued its decision in the redistricting case.

Shortly afterward, Baker asked the state Supreme Court to drop the case.

"There's nothing for the court really to handle and to advise on," said Baker. "We think it's an appropriate motion to be filed."

--From the Friday, June 27, 2003 online edition of the Augusta Chronicle