Justice Harold Melton takes the oath on a Bible held by his wife, Kimberly, from outgoing Chief Justice P. Harris Hines. (Photo: John Disney/ALM)

Newly sworn-in Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton gave a down-to-earth address Tuesday at the state Capitol, thanking friends, family and colleagues—and making them laugh.

“Judges are intimidating people to me. They still are,” Melton said to a packed chamber of the House of Representatives. Before him were his colleagues on the high court, plus the members of the Georgia Court of Appeals and several federal judges.

Outgoing Chief Justice P. Harris Hines gave the oath to Melton as his successor and to Justice David Nahmias to replace Melton as presiding justice. The ceremony was broadcast live on the Legislature's website.

In introducing the new presiding justice, Hines noted that Nahmias was the STAR student for the entire state—meaning he had the highest SAT score in Georgia—when he graduated from Briarcliff High School. Also, Hines said, Nahmias graduated summa cum laude from Duke University and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Melton followed with this description of his own rank at the University of Georgia School of Law: “I wasn't in the top of my class, but I could see the very top—of the bottom of my class,” Melton said, generating a big laugh from the audience.

Melton was also student body president at Auburn University as an undergraduate. His first legal job was interning for Hines, then a Cobb County Superior Court judge, in Marietta. Hines had to wait a year because the first summer, Melton was already interning for the governor's office in Alabama.

“I have loved him since that time,” Hines said of Melton.

After law school, Melton went to work as an assistant attorney general for then-Attorney General Mike Bowers, and later became executive counsel to Gov. Sonny Perdue, now secretary of the Department of Agriculture.

Perdue, the event's featured speaker, also used the word “love” to describe his feelings for Melton.

“Harold was always even keel. There was never emotion or passion. It was, 'Governor, you can't do that.' When you're going to say that to a governor, you'd better be right. Harold was right,” Perdue said. “I cannot identify a more fair-minded person than Harold Melton. There's no drama. There's just the integrity of a thought process.”

Melton closed with a story about a thought process of his that may have seemed flawed. Playing pitch and catch with his older brother, they managed to break three windows in one session, each time figuring they might as well keep pitching.

“I don't remember who threw it wildly,” Melton said. “But yes, we did break another window.”

The point of the story, Melton said, was a message of encouragement for those with whom he works.

“Just when you think I don't get it, I am on the brink of enlightenment,” Melton concluded. “God bless you and God bless the state of Georgia.”