by Ty Tagami | Apr 1, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Proponents of religious freedom gathered in the Georgia Capitol Tuesday to pressure the state House of Representatives to vote on a measure that would limit government intrusion into actions based on religious beliefs.
Opponents say religious rights are not under attack and that Senate Bill 36 would make it legal to discriminate against people under the banner of faith.
Proponents say religious freedom has been seriously infringed in other states and could be a problem in the future in Georgia. They have cited two cases in this state — one involving a student who wanted to hand out religious literature on a college campus and another involving a college counselor who was disciplined for asserting that her religious rights were compromised by having to advise LGBTQ students.
The Senate passed SB 36 along party lines in March. A committee of the House of Representatives then passed it, over the opposition of Democrats and one Republican.
The legislation has not come up for a vote on the floor of the House, and the 2025 legislative session ends Friday.
“It’s time to move, now,” W. Thomas Hammond, Jr., executive director of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, said Tuesday, with supporters arrayed behind him on the marble steps of the state Capitol.
The bill is being sponsored by Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, who said Georgia should join 39 other states with a Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
“We’re the only Republican-led state in the nation that does not have this protection,” Setzler said after Hammond spoke.
Critics of SB 36, including fellow Republican Rep. Deborah Silcox from Sandy Springs, have noted that Georgia is one of a few states lacking a comprehensive civil rights law that protects against discrimination in public spaces, workplaces or housing.
The federal Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Many states have expanded civil rights protections to also prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or both.
Eighteen cities and counties in Georgia have non-discrimination ordinances. Silcox and Democrats said SB 36 would pre-empt such local laws, and they pushed for language in Setzler’s bill they said would counterbalance religious interest.
Setzler opposed the amendment, saying SB 36 would not override local non-discrimination ordinances and that establishing a statewide non-discrimination law was a separate policy discussion.
Setzler explained Tuesday that he also opposed the amendment because the non-discrimination language was a “Trojan horse” that would “exempt” the religious protections in SB 36. If someone were to raise a non-discrimination claim, he said, the religious freedom protections wouldn’t apply if Silcox’s language had been added.
SB 36 seeks to prohibit government intrusion into the exercise of religion except in cases involving a “compelling government interest.”
Silcox’s amendment would have added that the government’s interest includes “protecting persons against discrimination on any ground prohibited by federal, state or local law.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, refuted Setzler’s assertion. In an interview after he spoke, Evans, who had voted for the Silcox amendment, said religious freedom protections can co-exist with protections against discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
“If Senator Setzler was not interested in using this RFRA bill to discriminate against Georgians,” she said, “he would have no problem with an anti-discrimination amendment to the bill.”
At this point, it is up to the House Rules Committee to decide whether to put SB 36 to a vote of the whole House. Should the committee withhold the bill when the House gavels to order on Wednesday and Friday, it would remain in play when lawmakers return next year, but it would be sidelined for the remainder of this year.
Asked for comment about the pressure campaign to bring SB 36 to a vote, a spokesperson for House Speaker Jon Burns, a Republican from Newington, texted this statement:
“There are several issues that the House will consider over the next two legislative days, and as always, we’ll focus on prioritizing policies that matter most to our fellow Georgians.”
by Ty Tagami | Apr 1, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation that would regulate an alternative method for disposal of the dead is on its way to Gov. Brian Kemp.
The Georgia House of Representatives on Monday adopted Senate Bill 241 by a vote of 157-4. The Senate had already approved the bill in a near unanimous vote in early March.
SB 241 was brought to the legislature by Sen. Rick Williams, R-Milledgeville, who is in the funeral home business.
“It’s just human composting,” he explained in a hearing about the measure several weeks ago, a hearing that was ripe with quips about the “Breaking Bad” bill and a 1950s song called “Dry Bones.”
But Williams said his measure was important for community safety and for the dignity of the deceased. He referenced a recent case in Colorado where remains were not properly disposed of, creating a health hazard.
Williams said properly composted corpses produced safe and hygienic soil that could be returned to families to use as they choose, including in the garden.
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 Ty Tagami | Mar 28, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Joe Salome built up his intoxicating hemp products business from one small store to six, and he got licensed by the state last year after new rules gave the industry a path into the sunlight.
Then, in a surprise move, some Republicans in the Georgia Senate tried to slam the brakes in early March, with legislation that sought to pare back the potency allowed in gummies and other consumables — and that also sought a total ban on beverages containing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the intoxicating component from hemp.
It wasn’t altogether unexpected by Salome, who said he always gets apprehensive when lawmakers return to the Capitol.
“Every year during this timeframe we hold our breath,” said Salome, owner of The Georgia Hemp Company. “My daughter’s 10, and now during this time of year it’s, ‘Hey dad, anything else bad happen to your business?’ “
Products from the hemp industry with the power to intoxicate started proliferating on store shelves after Congress passed legislation in 2018 that distinguished hemp from marijuana, making hemp derivatives legal.
The two plants are the same species, but hemp flowers contain less THC. Clever entrepreneurs were able to develop products from hemp with an intoxicating effect though.
Georgia began licensing hemp-related companies last year, but Senate Bill 254 sought to pump the brakes. It passed the Senate 42-14 in early March, with Republicans and Democrats voting on both sides.
The chief sponsor of the bill, Sen Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, said the dosages appearing on shelves were hazardous.
“We are putting loaded guns in people’s hands in the form of a can, or a gummy, and we need to protect them,” he said.
Cowsert opposed an amendment that sought to go even further, banning beverages containing THC, the intoxicating ingredient from hemp. But after the amendment passed, Cowsert voted for his amended bill.
The amendment was brought by Sen. Randy Robertson, R-Cataula, the chamber’s majority whip, who said, “We are on a bullet train when dealing with marijuana.”
Despite the Senate’s efforts, it appears the train will keep moving, for this year at least.
The Senate measure hit a wall in the House of Representatives, where Rep. Alan Powell, R-Hartwell, said he was reluctant to ban a substance “that God lets grow naturally.”
Powell chairs the House Regulated Industries Committee, where Cowsert’s bill was sent for review. After Cowsert testified for it at a hearing on Wednesday, people from the hemp industry got a chance to talk about the impact the legislation would have on them.
They spoke of the investments they’d made and of the employees they’d have to let go.
Diana Padron, owner of Hemp Haven ATL, talked about older customers who come to her shop looking for an alternative to pain medications or alcohol.
Meanwhile, a representative from a group called Georgians for Responsible Marijuana Policy, spoke of health risks from hemp products, from anxiety to dependency.
That hearing ended without resolution, but the next day Powell called another one, and he introduced his own amendment to SB 254.
Powell’s substituted language deleted all of the Senate’s proposed limits, including the ban on hemp beverages. It would leave the hemp industry in status quo, with one exception. Instead of punching the brakes, the Powell amendment taps the accelerator, by expanding hemp product sales to package stores, where they are currently prohibited.
The amended bill passed from his committee unanimously.
“We’re going to be studying this in depth this summer,” Powell said.
On Friday, Salome was relieved. “We live for another year,” he said.
