by Dave Williams | Oct 7, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The Georgia Supreme Court Monday reinstated Georgia’s six-week abortion ban while the state appeals last week’s Fulton County Superior Court decision declaring the law unconstitutional.
Judge Robert McBurney ruled the Living Infants and Equality (LIFE) Act the Republican-controlled General Assembly passed in 2019 violates women’s privacy and equal protection rights. The law prohibits abortions in Georgia after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, typically about six weeks into pregnancy, with exceptions including rape, incest, and threats to the life of the mother.
McBurney’s decision came in a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs including the reproductive rights group SisterSong and Planned Parenthood two years ago after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortion. The Georgia law had not been allowed to take effect until the high court ruling in the Dobbs case.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr quickly asked for last week’s decision overturning Georgia’s abortion ban to be stayed pending the state’s appeal.
“Elected officials in our state continue their disrespect of Georgia women, treating our bodies as state-owned property,” Andrea Young, executive director of ACLU of Georgia, said following Monday’s ruling.
“Today, the Georgia Supreme Court sided with anti-abortion extremists,” added SisterSong Executive Director Monica Simpson. “Every minute this harmful six-week abortion ban is in place, Georgians suffer. Denying our community members the lifesaving care they deserve jeopardizes their lives, safety, and health.”
Six of the nine justices on the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of staying last week’s lower court decision. Justices Nels S.D. Peterson and Andrew Pinson did not participate.
Justice John Ellington concurred in part and dissented in part. In Monday’s seven-page ruling, Ellington wrote that he saw no urgency for the high court to act while the underlying merits of the case have yet to be decided.
“The state should not be in the business of enforcing laws that have been determined to violate fundamental rights guaranteed to millions of individuals under the Georgia Constitution,” he wrote. “The ‘status quo’ that should be maintained is the state of the law before the challenged laws took effect.”
by Dave Williams | Oct 7, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – More than 137,000 Georgia high school seniors will receive a personalized direct college admissions letter this month, as the GEORGIA MATCH program begins its second year.
Each letter will list the public colleges and universities in Georgia that are holding a spot for the recipient. The 23 University System of Georgia (USG) institutions participating in the program will waive application fees next month for students who used the GEORGIA MATCH dashboard at gafutures.org/GEORGIAMATCH.
“GEORGIA MATCH removes the uncertainty and anxiety association with the college application process,” said Lynne Riley, president of the Georgia Student Finance Commission. “The GEORGIA MATCH letter shows students the public colleges and universities where they meet the academic requirements for admission.”
The 22 Technical College of Georgia institutions also take part in GEORGIA MATCH. However, the University of Georgia, Georgia Tech, and Georgia College & State University do not participate in the program because they have more stringent admission requirements.
During the first year of GEORGIA MATCH, more than half of the 132,000 students who received a letter applied for the 2024 fall semester to an institution on their letter.
USG schools reported a 10% increase in applications and a preliminary enrollment increase of 6.2% for the fall semester. The results were even better at the technical colleges, which reported a 26% increase in applications and a preliminary 9.3% rise in enrollment.
by Dave Williams | Oct 7, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Hurricane Helene isn’t going to get in the way of preparations for the Nov. 5 election, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Monday.
“We may have to move a few voting locations,” Raffensperger told reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol. “(But) we’re going to be ready.”
Helene was still packing 100-mile-per-hour winds when it moved out of Florida into South Georgia Sept. 27. After bringing heavy rainfall and flooding to the Valdosta area, the storm rampaged northeast through Dublin and the Augusta area before moving into the Carolinas.
Raffensperger said county election offices in the affected areas were forced to stop checking voting equipment and poll worker training temporarily but are starting to resume those activities. He thanked county election officials for the hard work they’re putting in to recover from the hurricane.
“They really put public service first because they know how important voting is,” he said.
Raffensperger said absentee ballots are going out this week as scheduled, with early voting due to begin Oct. 15.
Blake Evans, director of elections for the secretary of state’s office, said 8.2 million Georgians are registered to vote in the upcoming election, up from 7.6 million in 2020.
Gabriel Sterling, the agency’s chief operating officer, said the office has received nearly 220,000 requests for an absentee ballot. More than 1,400 from military and overseas voters already have been accepted, he said.
Although Monday is the deadline for registering to vote, Sterling said the numbers will increase as applications received before the end of the day are processed.
“Just because the voter list changes after today, that’s not fraud,” Sterling said. “That’s processing.”
Evans said county election offices in the areas hit by Helene for the most part sustained only minimal damage.
However, at least one polling location in Lowndes, Richmond, and Columbia counties will have to be moved, he said. The new locations will be posted on the secretary of state’s website, he said.
Raffensperger suggested Georgians start thinking now about how they’re going to vote.
“Make your plan to vote,” he said. “Are you going to vote early, absentee, or in person?”
by Dave Williams | Oct 4, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The National Park Service (NPS) is proposing four land exchanges at the Cumberland Island National Seashore the agency says would protect important parcels now privately owned from development.
But the lack of details surrounding the plan currently available to the public has environmental advocates worried it could threaten the pristine character of Georgia’s largest barrier island, defeating the purpose of Congress designating the national seashore more than 50 years ago.
“We find the proposal the park service has put out to be completely incongruent with the intent of the park,” Jessica Howell-Edwards, executive director of the nonprofit group Wild Cumberland, said during a virtual town hall on the project last month. “It’s very disheartening.”
Cumberland Island, Georgia’s southernmost barrier island, stretches for nearly 18 miles of pristine beaches and wilderness.
At its southern end are the ruins of Dungeness, a mansion built by steel magnate Andrew Carnegie’s brother Thomas in the 1880s.
Toward the northern end is the First African Baptist Church, built by former slaves in the 1890s and rebuilt in the 1930s. The church was the site of the wedding of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette in 1996.
The island is reachable only by private boat and ferry service that operates twice daily from downtown St. Marys, with a return trip three times a day.
The NPS is seeking public comment on the proposal. The deadline for that input recently was extended from Oct. 6 to Oct. 20, presumably in response to the level of public interest in the plan.
Specifically, the NPS is proposing the following four land exchanges, according to a nine-page document released by the park service:
- Exchange 1: The NPS would receive about 10 acres of unimproved forest located on the marsh side of the island adjacent to Old River Trail, which hikers use as a route to and from Plum Orchard and an alternative to the main road. In exchange, land currently owned by the park service not in an area with high visitor use would be privatized.
- Exchange 2: The park service would receive about 132 acres of upland forest, salt marsh, and ocean frontage, which supports important habitat for shorebirds and federally threatened sea turtles. Acquiring the property would maintain a green corridor east of the main road to the beach and guarantee continuity of the Parallel Trail, the primary north-south artery for hikers. Again, the NPS would privatize land not located in an area with high visitor use.
- Exchange 3: The NPS would receive about 136 acres of upland forest, salt marsh, and ocean frontage east of the main road within the Greyfield Historic District. The property contributes to a greenway and habitat corridor that runs the entire length of the island’s east side. In exchange, NPS-owned property on the marsh side of the island would be privatized. Several structures of varying sizes are located in the area, collectively referred to as Davisville.
- Exchange 4: The park service would receive about 95 acres of unimproved forest land, 85 acres east of the main road and 10 acres west of the main road. The property is adjacent to the island’s main ranger station/visitor center and is 100 yards north of Sea Camp, the largest and busiest campground. In exchange, the NPS would privatize property near the far north end of the seashore within the High Point-Half Moon Bluff Historic District.
In each case, a conservation easement would protect important cultural and natural resources in order to limit development in those areas, according to the park service document.
“Once acquired, these parcels would be part of the seashore and no longer be subject to private development, eliminating that potential source of impacts to natural resources, cultural resources, and visitor uses in those areas,” the NPS document states.
The document goes on to state that the “exact acreages, locations, and terms of the conservation easements” will be part of the negotiation process with the private landowners.
That lack of specifics is what has environmental groups concerned.
“Until proposed deed restrictions and conservation easements are created for the sites to be exchanged, the extent of new private development cannot be predicted,” David Kyler, cofounder and director of the Center for a Sustainable Coast, wrote in an email to Capitol Beat.
“Knowing this is critical because private development directly conflicts with the island’s lawful purpose to ensure that Cumberland Island is maintained in its primitive state.”
Looming over the proposed land exchanges is a plan the park service unveiled two years ago that essentially would double daily visitation to the island from the current limit of 300 that dates back to 1984.
While the NPS argues its Visitor Use Management Plan would provide access to a wider range of visitors, preservationists say it would ruin what makes the island special.
“That has been the push and pull on Cumberland Island for decades,” said Ricky Leroux, communications strategist for the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club. “How much of it is going to be wilderness versus development?”
Of some solace to environmental advocates is that the proposed land exchanges can’t move forward until their potential impacts are analyzed through a process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). That review will involve additional public comment periods allowing concerned parties to gather more details on the project and express their views.
“Hopefully, more information will come out,” Leroux said. “(But) I would encourage as much transparency as possible at every step of the process.”
by Dave Williams | Oct 4, 2024 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Georgia’s two U.S. senators have joined colleagues in five other Southeastern states ravaged by Hurricane Helene to ask for quick passage of a federal disaster relief package.
Congress went into recess last week after passing a stopgap federal funding bill to cover three months of spending. While some Republicans – including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson – have argued the bill should be sufficient, Democrats and Republicans from the stricken states say more is needed.
Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast late on Sept. 26 and moved into Georgia as a Category 4 hurricane early on Sept. 27, bringing strong winds, heavy rainfall, and widespread flooding. The death toll in Georgia stands at 33, while at least 270,000 Georgians were still without electricity as of Thursday.
“The devastation from Hurricane Helene across the southeastern United States is simply inconceivable,” Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and the senators from Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia wrote in a letter to Senate leadership. “Even preliminary damage assessments indicate that, at a minimum, the total damage and economic loss will be in the tens of billions of dollars. This amount will likely soar as recovery efforts continue and the full picture of this ruinous disaster becomes clear.
“Although the true level of devastation is still unfolding, it is clear that Congress must act to meet the unmet needs in our states and address the scope and scale of destruction experienced by our constituents. This may even require Congress to come back in October to ensure we have enough time to enact legislation before the end of this calendar year.”
President Joe Biden has added his voice to those urging Congress to act sooner rather than later. During an appearance at a pecan farm in South Georgia Thursday, the president urged lawmakers to pass a supplemental spending bill to speed federal aid to the victims.
“Congress has an obligation to ensure states have the resources they need,” he said.
Besides Ossoff and Warnock, signatories to the Senate letter included Republicans Thom Tillis and Ted Budd of North Carolina, Republicans Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott of South Carolina, Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, and Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine of Virginia.
