In re Chastain

Summary

The Court held that a replacement superior court judge commissioned after the county’s senior resident judge was recused may preside over an Article IV removal proceeding against an elected clerk. It further held that due process limits removal to conduct identified in the initiating affidavit and that the governing standard is constitutional misconduct, not statutory willful misconduct. The Court vacated the intermediate appellate decision and remanded for reconsideration under those standards, while declining to address the separate Article VI disqualification issue.