ATLANTA – A federal judge has lifted a preliminary injunction that was blocking a new state law limiting medical care for transgender minors in Georgia, allowing enforcement to resume.
U.S. District Judge Sarah Geraghty issued the injunction two weeks ago in a lawsuit filed by four Georgia families and a national organization of parents with transgender children, ruling the plaintiffs likely would succeed on the merits of the case.
But Geraghty changed course on Tuesday, citing a decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the day after her earlier ruling. The appellate court reversed an injunction that had been imposed in the Alabama case.
“It is undisputed that this court’s preliminary injunction order rests on legal grounds that have been squarely rejected by the panel in [Alabama],” Geraghty wrote in Tuesday’s decision. “This court’s injunction cannot stand on the bases articulated in the order.”
However, the judge rejected Georgia’s request that the preliminary injunction be quashed permanently. Instead, she stayed the injunction pending the final outcome of the Alabama case.
Georgia’s Republican-controlled General Assembly passed Senate Bill 140 in March, and Gov. Brian Kemp signed it the following day. It took effect July 1.
The legislation bans hormone replacement therapy for the treatment of gender dysphoria in adolescents.
During the debate on the bill, supporters argued the law would protect minors from making life-altering decisions at such a young age. Opponents maintained delaying hormone replacement therapy or surgery for transgender youths until after age 18 could pose mental health risks.
The lawsuit claims Senate Bill 140 violates transgender minors’ equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
ATLANTA – A Korean automotive parts company will build a manufacturing plant in Metter to supply Georgia’s Kia facility and the new electric vehicles plant under construction west of Savannah, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday.
DAS Corp. will invest more than $35 million in the project, which will create 300 jobs.
“Suppliers for the Hyundai Metaplant resulted in over $2 billion in investment last fiscal year alone, helping Georgia achieve a third straight year of record-breaking economic growth,” Kemp said.
“Our logistics assets, including a reliable network of rail lines and highways, connect companies like DAS to key business partners in all corners of the state and to markets across the world, providing direct benefits to Georgia communities.”
Established in 1987, DAS specializes in designing and manufacturing seating systems, safety seating components, and seating structures.
“The strategic location near prominent cities like Savannah and Macon, facilitating convenient access, played a pivotal role in our decision-making process,” said Sean Kim, the company’s chief operating officer.
“Looking ahead to future expansion prospects, we deemed Metter to be an ideal location in anticipation of its role as a global electric vehicle production hub thanks to its close proximity to Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America.”
The new DAS facility will primarily produce automotive seat structures. Operations are expected to begin in the last half of next year.
During the next five years, the company will be recruiting assembly technicians. Information about employment opportunities can be found at www.i-das.com or by emailing hr@dasnorthamerica.com.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce team worked on the project in partnership with the Candler County Industrial Authority, Georgia Ports Authority, Electric Cities of Georgia, and the Technical College System of Georgia’s Quick Start program.
ATLANTA – More than five dozen activists have been indicted on racketeering charges for violence associated with attempts to stop the construction of a controversial police training center by the city of Atlanta, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced Tuesday.
The 61 defendants, including 13 from Georgia, are accused of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the same law being used to prosecute former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants for allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia.
Some of the 61 also face separate charges of domestic terrorism, attempted arson in the first degree, and money laundering.
The indictment cites nine incidents going back to July 2020 in which the defendants allegedly committed violent acts at the construction site of the planned training center in DeKalb County – derided by opponents as Cop City – and other locations, including the state Department of Public Safety headquarters, the offices of the Atlanta Police Foundation, and the home of a state trooper.
Attacks against police officers guarding the site and other first responders resulted in two injuries, according to the indictment, while police vehicles, construction equipment, and buildings were damaged.
In the most highly publicized incident, a young protester was shot and killed and a state trooper was shot and seriously wounded last February during a cleanup operation law enforcement officers conducted to break up a tent encampment at the construction site.
“As this indictment shows, looking the other way when violence occurs is not an option in Georgia,” Carr said in a prepared statement. “If you come to our state and shoot a police officer, throw Molotov cocktails at law enforcement, set fire to police vehicles, damage construction equipment, vandalize private homes and businesses, and terrorize their occupants, you can and will be held accountable.”
The training center’s opponents also have sought to defeat the project by organizing a voter referendum.
A group of opponents, the Cop City Vote coalition, condemned the indictment Tuesday as “blatantly authoritarian.”
“Carr’s actions are part of a retaliatory pattern of prosecutions against organizers nationwide that attack the right to protest and freedom of speech,” the group wrote in a statement issued Tuesday. “We will not be intimidated by power-hungry strongmen, whether in City Hall or the attorney general’s office.”
But Carr said the indictment isn’t about protest or free speech.
“People do have a constitutional right to peacefully protest,” Carr told Capitol Beat Tuesday. “But protesters use words. These are all acts of violence.”
The Atlanta City Council approved $31 million in initial funding for the training center in June after hearing more than 14 hours of public testimony from the project’s opponents.
ATLANTA – A federal court began hearing legal challenges Tuesday to congressional and legislative redistricting maps the General Assembly’s Republican majorities drew two years ago based on the 2020 Census.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU’s Georgia chapter sued the state early last year, claiming the maps violate the federal Voting Rights Act by denying Black Georgians an equal opportunity to participate in the political process by electing candidates of their choice.
U.S. District Judge Steve Jones dismissed the cases in March 2022 but only because the May primaries were approaching and he considered it too close to change the maps before voters went to the polls.
In July of this year, the same judge rejected a bid by the state for a summary judgement dismissing the suits and ruled the cases may move forward.
Georgia’s Black population during the last decade increased by 13%, according to the census, while the state’s white population declined by 1%. The two suits argue Republican state lawmakers failed to draw district boundaries that reflect those demographic changes.
According to the plaintiffs, the General Assembly should have drawn three new state Senate and five new state House districts that would have provided Black voters an equal opportunity to elect their preferred candidates. Instead, the GOP lost only two seats in the House and one in the Senate in last year’s elections.
Georgia Republicans added one seat to their majority in the state’s congressional delegation last year by redrawing the district of U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Marietta, in Atlanta’s northern suburbs into heavily Republican Forsyth, Dawson, and Cherokee counties. As a result, McBath ran and won in an adjacent district then served by fellow Democratic Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux of Lawrenceville.
“When districts are drawn to minimize the voices of Black voters in Georgia, it damages our democracy,” said Rahul Garabadu, senior voting rights staff attorney for the ACLU of Georgia. “We look forward to presenting our case at trial.”
Republicans countered that they followed the law in redrawing the maps after the 2020 Census.
“Georgia’s maps are fair and adhere to traditional principles of redistricting,” GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said last year when the lawsuits first came up in federal court. “I look forward to defending them.”
Voting rights advocates also are challenging redistricting maps drawn by Republican lawmakers in other states. On Tuesday, a three-judge federal court panel in Alabama indicated they will have a special master draw a new congressional map for that state after twice rejecting maps drawn by Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature.
In Georgia, a ruling against the state could force the General Assembly into a special session this fall to redraw the congressional and legislative maps.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has released a $25 million, 16-week ad campaign that will air during pro football’s season opener in prime time this week.
The 30-second ads, which will air in Georgia and five other swing states, will tout Biden’s economic agenda, including getting inflation down to 3% and unemployment to its lowest level in decades.
“There’s more to do, but President Biden is getting results that matter,” the narrator says at the end of the ad.
Specifically, the ad lists actions by the Biden administration to improve the flow of goods through supply chains, fight corporate greed, lower the costs of medicine, cut utility bills, and make the U.S. energy independent.
The ads will run in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, and Raleigh, N.C., as well as CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC.
The defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs will host the Detroit Lions on Thursday night in the opening game of the NFL season.
ATLANTA – President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate former state Rep. Calvin Smyre to represent the United States at the 78th Session of the United Nations later this month.
The Columbus Democrat served in the Georgia legislature for 48 years, including a stint as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He left the Gold Dome last year after Biden nominated him U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, an appointment that was later changed to ambassador to the Bahamas. The U.S. Senate has yet to confirm the nomination.
“This momentous announcement is a testament to … Representative Smyre’s enduring commitment to diplomacy, equality, and the wellbeing of people both within Georgia and across the globe,” the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus wrote in a statement released Monday.
“The former dean of the Georgia General Assembly has served the state of Georgia and the nation for over four decades. Now, he’ll be able to take his gifts and knowledge of helping the least and left out on the international stage.”
Elected to the Georgia House in 1974 at the age of 26, Smyre held numerous leadership positions over the years. He served as the first Black chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party and the first Black governor’s floor leader in the General Assembly.
Smyre chaired the powerful House Rules Committee before Republicans took control of the chamber in 2004.
His legislative record is highlighted by the critical role he played in replacing Georgia’s segregation-era state flag featuring the Confederate battle standard and by his sponsorship of legislation making Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday.
More recently, Smyre was a key player in the passage of a hate crimes law in Georgia in 2020 and the repeal of the state’s 1863 citizens arrest law after the murder of Black jogger Ahmaud Arbery by three white men.
Smyre also has been active in national Democratic politics, co-chairing Bill Clinton’s Georgia presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996. He also served the Al Gore presidential campaign in 2000 as a deputy.
A banker, Smyre retired in 2014 as executive vice president of corporate affairs of Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corp. and president of Synovus Foundation.
The 78th Session of the UN General Assembly will run from Sept. 18 through Sept. 26.
