Skip to content
2018 Legislative Session

Bills to watch in Georgia: Gun control, anti-LGBT adoption and more

Last week in the Georgia Legislature marked the passage of Crossover Day, the final day for bills to pass out of the chamber in which they were introduced. The bills that don’t pass from senate to house or house to senate are considered dead. Here’s a rundown of the bills that made it through that we’re keeping a close eye on — the good, the bad and the “needs improvement.” We’re keeping a close eye

2017 Legislative Session

Wrapping up the 2017 legislative session

Georgia’s Legislature adjourned for good last week, just in time for the Masters Tournament (as always). While the at-times tumultuous session was set to end on Thursday, the gavels didn’t come down officially until early Friday morning, capping off 40 days of the most intriguing political theater in recent memory. Here’s what happened: Rigged Maps: House Bill 515, sponsored by disgraced former judge Johnnie Caldwell (WATCH Samantha Bee’s piece on Caldwell here), went down in

Haters gonna hate

A funny thing happened on Friday. Republicans stalled their own hateful bill by trying to add in a questionable “anti-terrorism” measure. This time of year, legislators have a habit of amending bills on the floor just before a vote, sometimes by adding in whole other bills. In the state Senate, if a long enough “amendment” is added, the bill has to go back a few steps in the process, before it can come back up

2017 Legislative Session

Lack of diversity in Georgia’s legislature

A recent article in The Atlantic observed that Gwinnett County, despite its high level of diversity, is run predominantly by white officials. “In Gwinnett County today, 20 percent of all residents are Latinos, and a majority of county residents are minorities (Asians make up 11 percent and African-Americans 26 percent). That blend makes Gwinnett the most diverse county in the Southeast. Yet it is a county almost exclusively represented by white elected and appointed officials.”

Ethics

Rep. Tom Taylor Should Resign

He had a gun on his hip and an open container of alcohol in his lap. It was 2:45 in the afternoon. He was traveling 72 miles an hour when the speed limit was 45. And there were four children in his car. When law enforcement pulled him over, they say Rep. Tom Taylor (R-Dunwoody) reeked of alcohol but told officers he had not been drinking. According to dash cam footage, he then told the officers

Sen. Renee Unterman is Blocking Justice for Rape Victims

A powerful Republican state Senator is blocking a crucial bill that would require police to account for the backlog of untested rape kits — evidence of sexual assault, sometimes including DNA, gathered when victims report the crime to authorities in Georgia. Many rape kits sit on shelves and remain untested for years or are even lost, all while the alleged rapist is never held accountable for the crime and is free to rape again. The