Charles Jones Bethel (born March 3, 1976) is an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. He is a former Judge of the

Georgia Court of Appeals The Georgia Court of Appeals is the intermediate-level appellate court for the U.S. state of Georgia. History Founding of the court The genesis of the Court of Appeals began with a report by the State Bar of Georgia in 1895, suggesting that the ...

. Before his judicial tenure, he served as

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the e ...

in the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...

from

Dalton, Georgia Dalton is a city and the county seat of Whitfield County, Georgia, United States. It is also the principal city of the Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Murray and Whitfield counties. As of the 2010 census, the c ...

.Senator Charlie Bethel
/span>. Senate.ga.gov. Retrieved June 28, 2013. Bethel was first elected Senator in the 2010

general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

and served Georgia's 54th district—a constituency which includes

Murray Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust * D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian whole ...

and Whitfield counties, and portions of

Gordon Gordon may refer to: People * Gordon (given name), a masculine given name, including list of persons and fictional characters * Gordon (surname), the surname * Gordon (slave), escaped to a Union Army camp during the U.S. Civil War * Clan Gordon, ...

and Pickens counties as well.

Early life and education

Charlie Bethel graduated

cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

in 1998 from the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

Terry College of Business The C. Herman and Mary Virginia Terry College of Business is a constituent college of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, United States. The business college offers undergraduate programs, MBA programs, specialized master's programs and ...

with a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanc ...

in business management. He stayed with the University of Georgia, graduating with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

from the

University of Georgia School of Law The University of Georgia School of Law (Georgia Law) is the law school of the University of Georgia, a Public university, public research university in Athens, Georgia. It was founded in 1859, making it among the oldest American university law sc ...

in 2001. Bethel was admitted to the

State Bar of Georgia The State Bar of Georgia is the governing body of the legal profession in the State of Georgia, operating under the supervision of the Supreme Court of Georgia. Membership is a condition of admission to practice law in Georgia. The State Bar w ...

in 2001 and practiced law from 2003–2005. He is admitted to practice law in all of Georgia's state courts, the

United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia (in case citations, N.D. Ga.) is a United States district court which serves the residents of forty-six counties. These are divided up into four divisions. Appeals from cases ...

, and the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

. Bethel was an assistant solicitor for the city of

Dalton Dalton may refer to: Science * Dalton (crater), a lunar crater * Dalton (program), chemistry software * Dalton (unit) (Da), the atomic mass unit * John Dalton, chemist, physicist and meteorologist Entertainment * Dalton (Buffyverse), minor c ...

from 2003–2004.

Political career

Bethel was elected in 2010 and sworn into the

Georgia Senate The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Legal provisions The Georgia State Senate is the upper house of the Georgia General Assembly, with the lower house being the Georg ...

in 2011. Bethel was a three-term Senator and sat on the Senate Government Oversight, Insurance and Labor, Judiciary, Judiciary Non-Civil, and Reapportionment and Redistricting committees.

Judicial career

Georgia Court of Appeals

On November 9, 2016, the day after being elected to his fourth Senate term, Bethel was appointed to be a Judge of the

by Governor

Nathan Deal John Nathan Deal (born August 25, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 82nd governor of Georgia from 2011 to 2019. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party in 1992 an ...

. He assumed the seat of

Michael P. Boggs Michael P. Boggs (born December 28, 1962) is the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, a former judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals and a former nominee to be a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the N ...

who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Georgia. He took the bench on January 1, 2017, for a term that would have ended on December 31, 2018.

Georgia Supreme Court

On September 14, 2018, Governor Deal appointed Bethel to the Supreme Court of Georgia to fill the seat vacated by the retirement of

Harris Hines Preston Harris Hines (September 6, 1943 – November 4, 2018) was the chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court in the United States for a span which began in 2017 and ended in 2018. Early years and education Preston Hines was born on September ...

. He was sworn into office on October 2, 2018.

References

External links

* Welcome to the Georgia General Assembly
Legis.ga.gov. Retrieved June 28, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bethel, Charlie 1976 births Living people Georgia Court of Appeals judges Republican Party Georgia (U.S. state) state senators People from Dalton, Georgia University of Georgia alumni University of Georgia School of Law alumni 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American judges Justices of the Supreme Court of Georgia (U.S. state)