David Nahmias

David E. Nahmias (born September 11, 1964) is an American lawyer who served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 2009 to 2021 and as its chief justice from 2021 to 2022. He is the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. Nahmias is currently a partner at the law firm Jones Day.

Background and early career Nahmias attended Briarcliff High School and was Georgia's STAR student. He graduated from Duke University as salutatorian in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, in political science. He later attended Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review along with Barack Obama. He graduated from Harvard in 1991 with a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude.

Career After law school, Nahmias was a law clerk to Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 1991 to 1992 and then to Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1992 to 1993. and confirmed by the United States Senate, on December 1, 2004, On September 4, 2018, Nahmias was sworn in as Presiding Justice, replacing Harold Melton, who became Chief Justice on the same day. He was sworn in as Chief Justice on July 1, 2021. He resigned on July 17, 2022.

In 2020, Nahmias wrote a ruling that authorized a loophole that allowed any Georgia Supreme Court judge who faces a serious re-election challenge to resign and have the Georgia governor appoint a new judge to a full term, thus disincentivizing challenges against incumbents and undermining competitive elections.