Sarah Jane Underwood v. Rita Harkins

JORDAN, Circuit Judge:

Following the 1860 election, President Abraham Lincoln chose a cabinet “comprised of enemies and opponents,” including three men who had been his “chief rivals for the Republican nomination,” because they “ ‘were the strongest men in the party’ ” and he “ ‘had no right to deprive the country of their services.’ ” Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln 319 (2005). When she was elected in 2008 as superior court clerk of Lumpkin County, Georgia, Rita Harkins did not emulate President Lincoln; in her first official act as clerk, Ms.…