by Dave Williams | Mar 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Controversial legislation banning transgender student athletes from participating in female sports in Georgia cleared the Republican-controlled General Assembly Monday.
Senate Bill 1, which the Senate’s GOP majority passed early last month, passed the House 100-64 virtually along party lines early Monday afternoon. The Senate then gave the bill final passage several hours later, voting 34-20 also along party lines to approve several changes the House had made to the measure.
The legislation prohibits Georgia public school and college students from competing on teams that do not match the sex on their birth certificates. It also applies to private institutions that compete against public schools and colleges.
Noncompliant public schools would risk loss of state funding and exposure to lawsuits.
During Monday’s House floor debate, Republican supporters said transgender students born male enjoy an unfair competitive advantage over women in sports to the point of threatening female athletes’ safety.
“It is a narrowly tailored commonsense bill that eliminates the potential for male advantage,” said Rep. Josh Bonner, R-Fayetteville, who carried the Senate legislation in the House. “Allowing that advantage on the field puts females at risk.”
Democrats countered that the bill targets transgender students, already a vulnerable group of young people studies have shown are particularly susceptible to mental health problems.
“This bill does not make our children safer,” said Rep. Jasmine Clark, D-Lilburn. “It’s a license to harass, bully, and harm.”
Other opponents said the bill isn’t necessary because no transgender males are currently competing in women’s sports in Georgia. House Democrats accused their Republican colleagues of seeking to score political gains at the expense of a tiny minority of Georgians.
“This is not about fairness. This is not about safety. This is about politics,” said Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates. “It’s a manufactured crisis designed not to solve a real problem but to create division and fear.”
But Rep. Chris Erwin, R-Homer, chairman of the House Education Committee, said the bill’s purpose is to promote “fairness, safety, and integrity” in school and college sports.
“This legislation does not target individuals,” he said. “It targets inequity.”
After the votes, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones – who presides over the Senate – called the bill a “historic step toward achieving a critical goal” for the 2025 legislative session.
“Since I took office in 2023 as lieutenant governor, the Senate has led the way to make protections for females competing in athletics on any level a reality,” Jones said.
“Today, the General Assembly sent a clear message – biological men are not welcome in girls’ sports or spaces here in Georgia,” added House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. “The House was proud to support this measure, which builds on prior protections championed by the House.”
The bill now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia legislature threw its support behind legislation that would make it easier for defendants in death penalty cases to avoid execution by proving that they have an intellectual disability.
The House of Represenatives approved House Bill 123 by a vote of 150-3, minutes after the Senate passed it 53-1. The bill, which now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature, would reduce the burden of proof for intellectual disability to a “preponderance” of the evidence rather than the current standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” It would also establish a pre-trial hearing process where the determination could be made rather than requiring it to be made during the guilt phase of a trial.
A convicted defendant could still be sentenced to life in prison. But the Senate amended the bill by adding “without possibility of parole.”
The House had approved the measure by a unanimous vote in early March but had to vote again Monday after the Senate made changes.
by Ty Tagami | Mar 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia legislature on Monday passed a sweeping school safety bill that seeks to identify students who intend to do harm and bolster mental health services for them.
House Bill 268 drew broad bipartisan support in both chambers of the General Assembly Monday, passing the Senate 45-9 and then the House of Representatives 154-12. The House had already approved the bill by a similar margin in early March but had to ratify Senate changes.
The measure has been a priority for House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington. The 57-page bill is a reaction to the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Barrow County last September, which led to four deaths and murder charges against a student and his father, who was accused of giving his son access to a gun. Nine others were wounded.
“We have to make sure that this never happens again in the state of Georgia,” said Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, whose district includes Barrow County.
HB 268 seeks to prevent violence before it happens. It would require that schools maintain records on students with troubling behavior, from regularly skipping school to disciplinary infractions and police encounters (police would have to inform the schools when they apprehend their students).
Schools would have five business days to share those records when a student transfers to a different school, as happened at Apalachee High. They would also have to maintain an around-the-clock anonymous tip line.
The legislation also calls for more mental health services. Each school system would get up to three state-funded student advocates, one for every 18,000 students. And it would require annual training for teachers and students about recognizing mental health warning signs.
The Senate deleted some provisions that were in the original bill passed by the House.
A mandate for schools to establish threat assessment teams was cut. So was a database that would have served as a repository of information about students who seemed suspicious. One state official said it might contain records on 1% of Georgia’s 1.7 million public school students.
Parents and their advocates feared such data would be inaccurate, prejudicial and stigmatizing — and follow students into adulthood, with potentially harmful consequences.
Cowsert agreed and deleted that provision during the review process in a committee he leads.
“They say and do stupid, irresponsible things,” Cowsert said of teenagers. “Why should we have this shadow database on misconduct of students that didn’t rise to the level of criminal conduct?”
But misconduct that does rise to the criminal level would be treated sternly under HB 268 through a provision added by the Senate. Children ages 13-17 who commit a terroristic act on campus could be tried in adult courts, with potential prison time and convictions that would go on their records for life.
A terroristic act would involve using a weapon, fire, hazardous substance or simulated hazardous substance to terrorize or cause an evacuation.
The legislation also would allow prosecutors to prosecute teens as adults for aggravated assault with a firearm, on or off campus.
That concerned Sen. RaShaun Kemp, D-Atlanta, who noted students in gangs could see their lives “drastically changed” by that new provision.
HB 268 now goes to Gov. Brian Kemp for his signature.
by Dave Williams | Mar 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has ordered the Justice Department to drop a lawsuit the Biden administration filed in 2021 challenging an overhaul of state election law passed by the Republican-controlled General Assembly.
Senate Bill 202 replaced the signature-match verification process for absentee ballots with an ID requirement. It also restricted the location of ballot drop boxes and prohibited non-poll workers from handing out food and drinks within 150 feet of voters standing in line.
The Justice Department under then-President Joe Biden claimed the law violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by intentionally discriminating against Black voters.
Georgia Republican leaders praised Bondi’s decision to drop the case, which had been widely expected since then-former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris last November to win back the White House.
“Georgia is one of the top states in the country for early voting and experienced record voter turnout in multiple elections since the passage of the Elections Integrity Act,'” Gov. Brian Kemp said Monday. “I am grateful that under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Trump, the DOJ has followed the truth.”
“The Biden administration used legally and factually false information provided by Stacey Abrams and her affiliated entities to file frivolous and costly lawsuits defaming the state of Georgia,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr added. “Georgia’s law makes it easy to vote and harder to cheat, just as we saw in 2022 and 2024, which is exactly why we requested that the Department of Justice withdraw this politically motivated lawsuit.”
The General Assembly passed Senate Bill 202 several months after Biden became the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry Georgia since Bill Clinton. Republicans claimed widespread voter fraud and launched a series of lawsuits challenging the outcome. None proved successful.
The 2021 legislation prompted a backlash. After Kemp signed the bill, Major League Baseball announced it would move that year’s All-Star Game from Truist Park to Denver.
“Our commitment has always been to ensure fair and secure elections for every Georgian, despite losing an All-Star game and the left’s boycott of Georgia as a result of commonsense election law,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said following Monday’s announcement by Bondi.
by Dave Williams | Mar 31, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath is pausing her campaign for governor, citing her husband’s health.
McBath, D-Marietta, formed an exploratory committee early this month for a potential run for governor next year. But on Monday, she released a statement announcing her husband is recovering from cancer surgery.
“I’m so grateful for everyone who has stood by my family as we undergo this arduous period,” McBath wrote in a statement. “I will be spending some time focusing on my husband’s health, and I cannot make a decision to run for governor or not at this moment.”
McBath is serving her fourth term in the House representing Georgia’s 6th Congressional District, which includes central and southern Fulton County, South Cobb, eastern Douglas, and northern Fayette counties.
She is the only Democrat who has come forward expressing an interest in succeeding term-limited Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr became the first Republican to enter the race when he announced his candidacy last fall. Other potential GOP candidates include Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
