Attorney must stay with defendants in APS cheating scandal

The attorney representing six former Atlanta Public Schools employees convicted in the massive cheating scandal that rocked the country will have to stay on the case.

Driving the news: The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the employees can't appeal a trial court ruling that rejected a request from their public defender, Stephen Scarborough, to withdraw from the case due to a conflict of interest.

• The court's opinion agrees with a Georgia Court of Appeals’ ruling, which says the motion cannot be directly appealed because the six defendants “would not lose an important right” if they had to wait on the final ruling.

What he's saying: Scarborough declined to comment to Axios about the court's ruling, but according to the AJC, he previously said he was in an "ethically untenable" situation representing all six former educators.

• He argued that serving all six clients forced him to leave out details on appeal that he would have raised if he only represented one person, the AJC reports.

Flashback: Eleven educators were convicted in 2015 on racketeering charges in the cheating scandal where students' answers were changed on standardized tests.