ATLANTA (AP) – Judges will be asked their opinions on abortion, gay rights and prayer in school before running for statewide office this year.

The Christian Coalition of Georgia announced it is sending out a first-ever candidate survey to quiz judges on their judicial philosophy.

The candidates for Georgia Supreme Court and Georgia Court of Appeals will be given five excerpts from recent controversial U.S. Supreme Court decisions and asked whether they agree or disagree.

The Christian Coalition calls it a fair, nonpartisan way for voters to learn more about the judges on the ballot. Others call it a conservative litmus test aimed at outing liberals from the bench.

One of the cases, a 1992 decision, deals with states’ rights to limit abortion. The candidates will be asked whether they agree with an excerpt from the majority opinion – that abortion “is a rule of law and a component of liberty we cannot renounce” – or agree with the dissenting view, which says abortion is not a constitutional right.

Another question, titled “homosexual conduct,” asks whether candidates agree with a 2003 decision striking down a Texas law criminalizing sodomy.

The answers to these and three more questions will be compiled and sent to 250,000 homes, with 500,000 additional copies going to churches.

The Christian Coalition has long put out voter guides for lawmakers, noting their votes on social issues important to the coalition. The coalition’s guides are thought to be influential, with many state lawmakers keeping the Christian Coalition in mind when voting earlier this spring on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

Now, thanks to a recent court ruling undoing strict limits on campaigning in judicial races, the Christian Coalition is getting involved in those races, too.

Traditionally the nonpartisan races for Supreme Court and Appeals Court judges are very low-key, with candidates allowed to talk about their education and credentials but not much else. The result is that few people paid attention to judicial races and incumbents were nearly always returned to the bench.

A lawyer who wrote the survey for the Christian Coalition, Jim Kelly, blasted the traditional low profile of judges’ races. He said that lawyers’ groups are the only ones paying attention to judicial races, leaving judges with “a very incestuous relationship with the bar association.”

The new rule is that candidates can talk about judicial philosophies, and point to earlier rulings they agree with. They still will be banned from saying how they would rule on a certain topic if elected.

“To make any statement that would be commitment to rule any way would be a violation of our judicial code,” said Rich Reeves, director of the Judicial Education Office at the University of Georgia, which trains all state judges. “You always predicate your remarks by underscoring that your first obligation is to uphold existing law.”

Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University, said the Christian Coalition survey is trying to boost conservatives in judicial races.

“They’re trying to highlight conservative judges, give them a chance to go on record,” Black said.

More liberal judges, he suspected, would ignore the survey. The candidates have been given a May 21 deadline to return the survey, with voter guides coming out soon after for the elections. The state Supreme Court and Appeals Court judges are elected in the July primaries, not the fall elections.