The Georgia Court of Appeals punted an emergency appeal to the state Supreme Court Thursday intended to reinstate an election for the seat held by Justice Keith Blackwell.

The appellate court's refusal to take up former U.S. Rep. John Barrow's appeal of the state's decision to cancel the scheduled election for Blackwell's seat sets up a potential conflict of interest for Blackwell and his fellow justices.

Barrow's lawyers moved to disqualify or recuse all nine justices from considering the appeal late Thursday, citing the state Code of Judicial Ethics, which requires judges to disqualify themselves in any proceeding in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned.

Blackwell, who remains a current member of the court because his Feb. 26 resignation doesn't take effect until Nov. 19, was also subpoenaed as a witness and submitted stipulated testimony in a Fulton County Superior Court hearing on Barrow's mandamus petition. Blackwell was represented by the state attorney general's office, which also represents Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the target of Barrow's mandamus petition.

Barrow lawyers also said the impartiality of the Blackwell's fellow justices "might reasonably be questioned by a skeptical public."

On Thursday, the state appeals court handed off the case to the state Supreme Court, while acknowledging it may have jurisdiction. A 2016 law expanded the appeals court's jurisdiction to include all equity cases, which it acknowledged could include Barrow's mandamus petition seeking to reinstate the election. The appeals court said the Georgia Constitution gives the state's highest court "exclusive appellate jurisdiction" over all election contests, including challenges involving candidates for office and election results.

The election was nixed on March 1, the day before qualifying began, after Gov. Brian Kemp notified Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger that he will fill Blackwell's seat by appointment after accepting the justice's resignation, which will not take effect until November.

"In the present appeal, the grant or denial of mandamus relief appears to be merely ancillary to the underlying election contest," the appeals court order said. "Consequently, the Supreme Court may have jurisdiction over any appeal of the superior court's order denying Barrow's petition for a writ of mandamus."

On Thursday, Barrow co-counsel Michael Moore, a former U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, said that maneuvers to appoint rather than elect Blackwell's replacement "already gives the appearance that a group of insiders have determined that hand-selecting a justice and protecting a judicial pension is more important than protecting the people of Georgia's right to vote."

That suspicion would only be enhanced if sitting justices were to hear a case directly involving someone they work with every day, Moore said. "That's a little bit like asking the chickens in the henhouse to vote on whether one of them can keep its golden egg."

Moore is one of a team of Pope McGlamry lawyers representing Barrow. Lester Tate, a partner at Cartersville's Akin & Tate and a former president of the State Bar of Georgia, is co-counsel.

Fulton County Senior Judge Melvin Westmoreland, a former president of the state's Council of Superior Court Judges, predicted Thursday that Blackwell will disqualify himself from considering an appeal over whether Gov. Brian Kemp can appoint his replacement. Blackwell submitted his resignation to Kemp on Feb. 26 while notifying the governor he will remain in office for nine more months.

But Westmoreland also suggested that the entire state Supreme Court bench should recuse.

"Whether the public perceives the other justices as being able to impartially decide the matter so important to one of their companions is difficult to gauge," Westmoreland said. "In an abundance of caution, it may be in the Supreme Court's best interest to consider a process which allows judges from outside their bench to hear and decide this case."

Former state Supreme Court Justice Leah Sears also weighed in on Wednesday, saying she was disappointed that, for now, there will be no election for Blackwell's seat. "The position of a Supreme Court justice, in general, is an elected one, even though that doesn't happen," she said.

The appeals court's move came only 24 hours after Barrow's lawyers filed an emergency motion to set aside a Fulton Superior Court judge's order affirming the secretary of state's decision to cancel the election.

Barrow, who intended to run for Blackwell's vacant seat, sought a mandamus writ ordering Raffensperger to reopen qualifying and reinstate the election. A second would-be candidate—former state legislator and Mathis Freeman & Gary partner Beth Beskin—filed a similar mandamus petition after she, too, was barred from qualifying to run. Beskin filed a similar appeal as Barrow Thursday.