by Dave Williams | Jun 25, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in a lawsuit challenging the way Georgia elects members of the state Public Service Commission (PSC).
The court’s decision not to take up the case, issued on Monday, means members of the PSC will continue to be elected statewide under a new schedule adopted by the General Assembly this year.
While the five members of the commission serve as representatives of districts, each member is elected statewide.
A federal lawsuit filed by four Black Fulton County residents argued that electing members of the PSC statewide diluted Black voting strength in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, making it more difficult for Black voters to elect a candidate of their choice.
While a lower federal court agreed and ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision. Monday’s ruling by the Supreme Court not to hear the case upheld the appellate court, meaning statewide PSC elections that had been delayed while the lawsuit was pending now may go forward.
Under the schedule the legislature approved in March, elections for PSC districts 2 and 3 – now held by Commissioner Tim Echols and Commissioner Fitz Johnson, respectively – will take place next year. The election for District 5 will be held in 2026.
Elections for PSC districts 1 and 4 will take place in 2028.
by Dave Williams | Jun 25, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A bipartisan group of former elected leaders are joining forces to fight election lies that erode public confidence in the nation’s electoral system.
The Democracy Defense Project, launched Tuesday, is led by former Govs. Nathan Deal and Roy Barnes, former U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.
“For far too long, politicians, pundits, and activists have worked overtime to sow distrust in America’s electoral process,” said Deal, a Republican. “We refuse to sit on the sidelines while the bedrock of this great nation is eroded away by misinformation and dangerous political agendas. Our goal is to restore confidence in the electoral process that makes this country exceptional.”
“Trust in the electoral system and commitment to a peaceful transition of power are vital to the future success of our republic,” added Barnes, a Democrat. “While it may be politically advantageous to undermine America’s core values, it’s a harmful damaging game with lasting consequences.”
Georgia is ground zero for election lies. A Fulton County grand jury indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants last summer on charges of participating in a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
Trump continues to claim that he carried Georgia four years ago when, in reality, Democrat Joe Biden received more votes and, thus, won the Peach State’s 16 electoral votes.
The Democracy Defense Project is being launched in the same week that Trump and Biden will appear at CNN’s Atlanta studios for the first of two scheduled debates ahead of the 2024 election.
The Georgia effort is part of a national push for election integrity focusing on battleground states where challenges to the November election results may arise. The organization will use earned and paid media to raise awareness of efforts to subvert elections across the country.
by Dave Williams | Jun 25, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A nonprofit that raises money to pay cash bail for criminal defendants held in pretrial detention is challenging a new state law that adds to the list of offenses that are ineligible for no-cash bail.
The Barred Business Foundation and two individual Georgians, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Monday. The suit is seeking a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against a provision in Senate Bill 63 that prohibits charitable organizations from posting more than three cash bonds per year.
The Republican-controlled General Assembly passed the legislation this year, voting along party lines.
Supporters said the bill would help enhance public safety at a time violent crime is on the rise.
Opponents said it punishes people who have not been convicted of a crime.
“SB63 is cruel and costly, forcing people to languish in jail because they can’t pay for their release and prohibiting others from being able to help them become free,” said Cory Isaacson, legal director of the ACLU’s Georgia chapter.
“It is mean, it is unconstitutional, and our hope is that the courts will step in to stop the state from doing more harm.”
The court has scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit for Friday, three days before the law is due to take effect.
by Dave Williams | Jun 21, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The General Assembly passed legislation this year guaranteeing Georgians the right to fish in the state’s navigable rivers and streams.
Now comes what promises to be the trickier question of deciding which rivers and streams are navigable and which are not.
“This is the harder one to figure out,” said Mike Worley, president and CEO of the Georgia Wildlife Federation.
A Georgia House study committee will begin tackling that task this summer and make recommendations to the full House – if any – by Dec. 1.
It will be chaired by Rep. Lynn Smith, R-Newnan, who also chairs the House Natural Resources & Environment Committee, and include Majority Whip James Burchett, R-Waycross, who chaired a study committee on the fishing rights issue last year and was chief sponsor of this year’s bill. Neither lawmaker could be reached this week to talk about the upcoming effort.
The study committee won’t be working from a blank slate. Burchett introduced legislation this year naming 64 rivers and creeks “presumed to be navigable.”
The list includes such no-brainers as the Altamaha, Chattahoochee, Flint, and Savannah rivers. But others that may or may not make the list aren’t so clear-cut.
“There are some well-known streams throughout the state that are going to be question marks,” Worley said.
Worley named the Toccoa River, Seventeen Mile Creek, and Ichawaynochaway Creek as examples. The Toccoa is on the list included in Burchett’s bill, but the other two are not.
“There is a lack of clarity over what’s navigable and what’s not,” said Gordon Rogers, executive director of the environmental advocacy organization Flint Riverkeeper. “We need to hash that out.”
Historically, Georgians have enjoyed the right to fish in the state’s navigable waters. But that right came into question early last year when a property owner along a portion of the Flint River asserted an exclusive right to control fishing from the bank on its side of the river to the center of the stream and banned fishing there.
Four Chimneys LLLP sued the state alleging failure to enforce the ban and won an agreement from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources in March of last year promising to enforce the ban. That agreement prompted the General Assembly to pass a bill on the final day of the 2023 legislative session codifying a public fishing rights guarantee into state law.
No sooner had the ink dried on that legislation when some waterfront property owners began objecting to language in the bill guaranteeing access to fishing on navigable waterways as a “public trust.”
After holding a series of hearings on the issue around the state last fall, Burchett introduced a fishing rights bill removing the public trust doctrine. The General Assembly passed House Bill 1172 in March primarily along party lines after minority Democrats complained it didn’t go far enough to protect fishing rights.
Although the bill won’t take effect until July 1, Worley said he’s already heard stories of people fishing being approached by property owners and told they can’t fish.
“I don’t think the language (in the bill) was clear enough,” he said. “There are going to be lawsuits.”
Rogers said he doesn’t fear the threat of litigation.
“I’m fishing where I’ve fished for decades and doing it the way I’ve been doing it for decades,” he said. “If a property owner wants to bring an action contrary to that, fine.”
Rogers praised Burchett’s efforts to get a bill that would satisfy both property owners and the state’s anglers.
But Rogers warned that the new study committee faces a difficult task when it comes to deciding which rivers and streams – or portions thereof – will be open to fishing and which won’t.
If it was easy, Burchett’s bill declaring dozens of waterways navigable would have passed this year. Instead, it died without even a committee vote.
“Whoever does that is going to run into a buzzsaw from both sides,” Rogers said. “There’s going to be people who say it’s not enough and people who say it’s too many.”
by Dave Williams | Jun 20, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) will host four open houses next month on a plan to add toll lanes along the top end of Interstate 285 and along Georgia 400 in Cobb, Fulton, and DeKalb counties.
The project will add two barrier-separated lanes in both directions of the so-called Perimeter Highway between South Atlanta Road and Henderson Road and on Georgia 400 from south of the Glenridge Connector north to the vicinity of the North Springs MARTA station.
I-285 perennially ranks among the most congested stretches of highway in the nation, averaging 250,000 to 300,000 vehicles per day. The toll lanes are aimed at reducing congestion to provide more reliable trip times.
The State Transportation Board voted last month to move forward with the project.
The open houses are part of a public comment period on the project that ends July 29. Here is the schedule for the four open houses:
- July 8 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. – Spring Hall Event Center, Doraville
- July 10 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Campbell Middle School, Smyrna
- July 16 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. – Dunwoody City Hall
- July 18 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. – City Springs, Sandy Springs
The DOT’s project team also will host two live virtual sessions on July 9 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and on July 17 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Access details will be added on the day of the sessions at the project’s web page at https://i285topendexpresslanes-gdot.hub.arcgis.com.
The DOT also is working with MARTA to add a transit component to the project.
“These are two processes running commensurate with each other and integrated together,” Georgia Commissioner of Transportation Russell McMurry told members of the State Transportation Board Thursday.
MARTA is planning to run bus-rapid transit routes along I-285, with stops at a combination of new stations and existing MARTA stations.
