With an expanded lineup of nine justices, the Georgia Supreme Court cranked out almost 400 opinions in 2017.

As befits a court largely filled with jurists tapped by conservative Republican governors who have occupied the Statehouse for the past 13 years, their opinions are generally characterized by lawyers and court-watchers as leaning toward the state in matters of legislative interpretation and mindful of corporate litigants' needs.

From its decree that state laws are all but unassailable to legal challenge to ruling that arbitration agreements are binding on the survivors of dead nursing home patients, the court generally stayed the course.

Even so, there were more than few surprises and twists among the high court's opinions. Here are a few:

It's Good to Be the King

In recent years, the high court has issued a series of rulings decreeing that the doctrine of sovereign immunity protects the state or its subdivisions from lawsuits unless it gives assent to be sued.  

An October opinion authored by Justice Keith Blackwell erased any doubt as to the doctrine's sweep, writing for a unanimous court that a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a law banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks could not proceed.  

Blackwell's 71-page ruling said “the constitutional doctrine of sovereign immunity forbids our courts to entertain a lawsuit against the state without its consent.”

Blackwell did note, however, that “aggrieved citizens may obtain relief from unconstitutional acts, including prospective relief from the threatened enforcement of unconstitutional laws,” by suing individual officials.

Order Up!

In what can only be called a smothered mess of criminal and civil litigation that began with accusations of sexual harassment against former Waffle House CEO Joe Rogers Jr., the Supreme Court revived criminal charges against his accuser, Mye Brindle, and her two lawyers.

A Cobb County judge disqualified Brindle's lawyers after ruling they helped her secretly record Rogers having a sexual encounter with her. Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. subsequently filed criminal charges against all three.

A Fulton judge dismissed the criminal charges, but a unanimous high court revived them. in a separate ruling, it also affirmed the lawyers' disqualification, which was upheld by the Court of Appeals.

$3.7 Million Thrown Out

Reversing a divided Court of Appeals opinion, the justices unanimously threw out a $3.7 million award to a woman who was molested while she was under anesthesia at a dental office. The unanimous decision authored by Chief Justice Harris Hines said the dental practice had no reason to know that nurse anesthetist Paul Serdula would assault several female patients. Serdula is now serving a life sentence in prison.

Hines' opinion rejected arguments that the supervisors should have known there were other reported cases of dental patients being molested under anesthesia, which made his criminal attacks foreseeable.

Judges Have Opinions, Too

An unsigned, unanimous opinion said it was OK for the Council of State Court Judges to file friend of the court briefs in challenging the authority of the Judicial Qualifications Commission to make rules affecting judges' conduct.

Even so, the opinion urged “individual judges involved in similar organizations to be circumspect with regard to their own roles in, and public affiliation with, the briefs filed by these organizations.”

Megamillion-Dollar Roller Coaster

In an opinion among those cited by a report claiming Georgia risked becoming a “judicial hellhole,” the high court reinstated a $35 million jury award to the family of a 19-year-old man beaten and left severely brain damaged in a gang attack at a bus stop outside Six Flags Over Georgia.

The Court of Appeals had nixed the verdict, ruling too much liability was apportioned to the amusement park and not the attackers.

In reversing, the court found not only that the jury properly found that Six Flags could be held liable but also that the trial court could order a new, damages-only trial.

First Rule of 'Fight Club'—Fight Back

Overturning a Court of Appeals ruling, a unanimous court held that a Henry County student expelled for fighting had a right to argue self-defense before school officials kicked her out under the school's “zero-tolerance” policy.

Writing for the court, Justice Robert Benham said, “[s]imply because a student engages in a fight does not establish the student has violated a disciplinary rule prohibiting the 'physical abuse' of others.”

Flip, Flop & Fly  

Prosecutors and defense lawyers alike were suffering whiplash when the unanimous court threw out a woman's murder conviction, then turned around a few weeks later and issued a second unanimous, unsolicited opinion reinstating it.  

Defendant Lisa Lebis was convicted of murder in the 2012 death of police officer Sean Callahan even though her husband, Tremaine Lebis, pulled the trigger.

The justices unanimously reversed the murder conviction in October, with Justice Britt Grant writing there was no evidence the woman had control over the gun. Six weeks later, Grant penned another opinion saying Lebis could still be accountable, even though she “did not jointly possess that firearm” with Tremaine at the time of the murder.

Even Clayton County District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson, who prosecuted the case, said she was flummoxed by the court's U-turn.

“I've been a lawyer since 1984. I've never seen this,” Lawson told the Daily Report.

Free Bird

It probably won't be among the most-cited cases in many law review articles, but a unanimous opinion threw out a pro se litigant's disorderly conduct conviction for raising his middle finger as he berated a church pastor.

Oral arguments were also marked by what may come to be known as the Melton Digital Doctrine: the notion—voiced by Melton during oral arguments—that the simple act of raising the finger does not rise to the level of “tumultuous” behavior contemplated by the statute.    

“You always get one free bird, don't you?” Melton asked Hall County Assistant Solicitor Daniel Sanmiguel at the time.

Street Legal  

With a unanimous vote, the justices said a Fulton County judge was right to scrap a lawsuit filed by a group of Atlanta taxi drivers arguing their livelihoods were threatened by a law allowing Uber, Lyft and other ride-sharing providers to operate.

The drivers, who pay the city of Atlanta as much as $6,000 apiece for the “medallions” allowing them to operate (although they can be re-sold for much more), said the 2015 state law was an unconstitutional taking of their property.

Justice Carol Hunstein, writing for the court, said the cabbies had no “exclusive right to provide rides originating in the city limits which charged fares based on time and mileage.”

Rockin' to the Oldies

A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that a company that offered free internet music streaming does not violate Georgia's record piracy law by allowing listeners to access music recorded prior to 1972.   

iHeartMedia, which owns hundreds of radio stations as well as streaming service iHeartRadio, was sued by a man holding the rights to dozens of recordings made during the 1950s and 1960s.

Melton wrote that iHeartMedia's radio service, “which allows users to 'build their own station around a particular song, band, genre, etc., provides for more user input, but is not an on demand service, and ultimately resembles someone selecting a terrestrial AM/FM station based on the station's advertised genre of music.”

Free at Last

In November, the justices overturned the murder convictions of three former soldiers who had been in prison for 25 years after defense attorneys discovered a hidden police report indicating a similar murder occurred after Mark Jones, Kenneth Gardiner and Dominic Lucci were arrested in Chatham County.

The men were released on bond with no objection from Chatham County prosecutors three days before Christmas.