Former U.S. Rep. Bob Barr is Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's likely pick to fill a position opening July 1 on the state's judicial watchdog commission, according to two State Bar of Georgia officials.

Barr—a former U.S. attorney and the Libertarian Party's 2008 presidential nominee—was added at the request of Kemp's staff to a list of lawyers the bar recommended to replace Athens attorney Edward Tolley on the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Kemp's request to add Barr was confirmed by Ken Hodges—now a judge on the state Court of Appeals—and Dentons partner Edward Lindsey, chairman of the bar's JQC nominations committee.

Tolley's term expires June 30. He has been a member of the JQC since 2016, when the bar—which until 2017 had authority to appoint three of what was then a seven-member commission—named Tolley to the JQC after its former chairman resigned.

After the 2016 passage of a constitutional amendment abolishing the formerly independent JQC and reestablishing it as a creature of the state Legislature, then Gov. Nathan Deal reappointed Tolley in 2017 to a two-year term as its chairman.

Tolley's replacement will serve a four-year term and may be reappointed for a second term.

State law governing JQC appointments gives the governor authority to appoint one lawyer to the commission's investigative panel, which reviews allegations of potential judicial misconduct and brings ethics charges when warranted. The governor also appoints a citizen member to the JQC's three-person judicial panel.

Under JQC rules and its governing legislation, the bar may recommend a list of individuals for consideration to serve as attorney members of the JQC to the governor, the lieutenant governor and the House speaker. None of the appointing authorities, though, are required by law to make appointments from the bar's recommended list.

Lindsey said members of the governor's staff “asked for us to vet [Barr], and we did, along with the others.”

Lindsey said his committee unanimously agreed to forward a list of six lawyers, including Barr, to the state bar's board of governors for approval. Hodges said the board unanimously approved the list and then forwarded it to Kemp.

Hodges said the board voted on the list “without discussion and without any dissent.”

“No one had any problem with any of the names on the list,” he said.

Hodges said he understood that Kemp already has selected Barr to fill the JQC vacancy. But, he added, “It ain't done till it's done.”

Kemp's office hasn't announced the appointment, and spokeswoman Candice Broce declined to comment. Barr was out of the office and couldn't be reached.

As a Republican U.S. representative from 1995-2003, Barr—who began his career as a CIA analyst before becoming a lawyer—quickly embraced a national reputation as one of the most conservative members of Congress. Shortly after his arrival, Barr authored and sponsored the federal Defense of Marriage Act that banned the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage. He also introduced the first resolution calling for a formal impeachment inquiry of then-President Bill Clinton and later became a manager of the House impeachment proceedings.

Barr also recently took issue with national injunctions issued by federal judges who stayed President Donald Trump's 2017 travel ban and called a halt to the use of 3-D printers to plastic make guns.

“The idea of a single, liberal attorney general and one friendly judge colluding to freeze the policies of an individual citizen harming no one, or even more disturbing, stopping the president of the United States from implementing policies he is lawfully permitted to undertake, based on pure speculative notions of harm, is absurd,” Barr wrote in a column for The Marietta Daily Journal last year. “Even more, it is dangerous to the proper functioning of our judicial system.”

In addition to Barr, the other names on the list to replace Tolley include:

• Sam Olens, a former state attorney general and former president of Kennesaw State University who is now in the Atlanta offices of Dentons.
• Scott Delius, a former member of the U.S. Army JAG Corps in Afghanistan and a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army National Guard.
• Rome attorney Christopher Twyman, a partner at Cox, Byington, Twyman & Johnson and vice president of the Rome Bar Association.
• Columbus attorney LaRae Dixon Moore, a former senior assistant district attorney and federal public defender now at partner at Page Scrantom Sprouse Tucker Ford.
• Matthew Moffett, a partner at Gray Rust St. Amand Moffett Brieske in Atlanta and former president of the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association.