Opinion
A21A1264
09-01-2021
MCALISTER v. CLIFTON.
The Court of Appeals hereby passes the following order:
In this case, Appellant challenges the trial court's ruling granting the Appellee's petition for parental rights under the Equitable Caregiver Statute, OCGA § 19-7-3.1, raising numerous arguments of error, including that the trial court erred by finding that her constitutional challenge to the statute was without merit.
This Court originally exercised jurisdiction over this appeal based on our review of the trial court's final order, and the parties briefed the issues and appeared for oral argument on August 19, 2021. Based on references made in the briefs and at the oral argument regarding certain constitutional challenges made by the Appellant, this Court has reviewed its initial jurisdictional determination.
The Supreme Court of Georgia "has exclusive jurisdiction over all cases involving construction of the Constitution of the State of Georgia and of the United States and all cases in which the constitutionality of a law, ordinance, or constitutional provision has been called into question." This exclusive jurisdiction extends "only to constitutional issues that were distinctly ruled on by the trial court and that do not involve the application of unquestioned and unambiguous constitutional provisions or challenges to laws previously held to be constitutional against the same attack."
Atlanta Independent School System v. Lane, 266 Ga. 657, 657 (1) (469 S.E.2d 22) (1996) (citing Ga. Const. of 1983, Art. VI, Sec. VI, Par. II (1)).
(Punctuation omitted.) State v. Davis, 303 Ga. 684, 687 (1) (814 S.E.2d 701) (2018).
Here, the trial court expressly rejected the Appellant's constitutional challenge to OCGA § 19-7-3.1, which challenge appears to present an issue of first impression. Because the Supreme Court has the ultimate responsibility for determining appellate jurisdiction, we hereby TRANSFER this appeal to the Supreme Court for disposition.
See Saxton v. Coastal Dialysis & Med. Clinic, 267 Ga. 177, 178 (476 S.E.2d 587) (1996).