He was again a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1947 to 1949, where he served as a floor leader for Herman Talmadge in the three governors controversy.
[5] In his first year on the bench, Elliott issued an order halting a civil rights demonstration led by the Martin Luther King Jr. in Albany, Georgia.
He later said that the decision — subsequently overturned on appeal — was made due to a threat of violence against King and his supporters.
In 1974, Elliott gained notoriety for overturning the conviction of Army Lt. William Calley for killing 22 people during the 1968 My Lai massacre, a decision later overruled by the appeals court.
[6][7] In 1996 and 1997, Elliott was reprimanded by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for his evidentiary rulings in cases involving DuPont and Mazda.