GA hate crime bill considered

Georgia is one of only four states without a hate crime law, but as legislation sessions resume on Monday, getting one passed is near the top of the priority list, according to Representative Heath Clark (R-District 147) and Representative Shaw Blackmon (R-District 146).

“It’s passed out of the House, so it’s now in Senate Judiciary,” Clark said of Georgia’s current hate crime bill. “They will be taking it up, but we really don’t know the schedules yet of what sessions are going to look like. We know it’s going to start on Monday, but we don’t know if it’s going to be a matter of starting Monday and taking a couple of days off to look at the budget, or what.”

Clark said that with the affect that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the economy, the budget is at the top of the priority list. However, he said the hate crime bill will get top attention as well.

“The speaker of the House has come out expressing the desire to see it passed, and I think the governor and lieutenant governor have both come out and made statements about wanting to see a form of the hate crime bill passed as well,” Clark stated. “With all that being said, I’m sure it will get some kind of movement and traction to finish during the legislative session when we reconvene.”

With the deadline quickly approaching for when a budget must be passed, Clark said it must be a crucial item of focus. “We have to pass a budget for the next fiscal year, and constitutionally, we have to have that passed by July 1. With the COVID-19 situation, we had planned on some projections, but now those projections have changed.”

Clark mentioned that with talking with leadership in the House, they have been asked to try to start communicating with committee chairs, so that they can try to prioritize the legislation. “Even though we have 11 legislative days,” he explained, “it’s going to be a little bit slower due to social distancing and the amount of time it’s going to take to redo the budget.”

In spite of the fact that official session schedules and agendas have not been finalized yet, Clark spoke with confidence on what he expects. “I imagine a couple of things,” he said. “One, the budget is going to be a priority, and two, based on comments made by leadership in the House, Senate and the governor’s office, the hate crime legislation will be a top priority as well.”

Aside from the two items of main concern, Clark said he has introduced a military spouse bill that, if passed into law, will have a direct impact on people in Houston County. “Some of the spouses or military members who transition into Georgia, or Robins Air Force Base, in particular… if they have a professional licensing in another state, they can get right to work when they move here with the passing of piece of legislature. They won’t have to go through the process of obtaining that license here. We will recognize their licensing from the other state so can get to work immediately when they get to Robins Air Force Base.”

Blackmon concurred with Clark’s belief that the bill would be at the matter of urgency when the session resumed. “The speaker made it very clear,” Blackmon said. “Beyond the budget, I think it (the hate crime bill) is priority number one for the House. In some of the conversations I have had in the last few days and the last few weeks, I think we realize how much it means, from a symbolic standpoint, and what this bill will do. I think it’s important to say that I believe some version of it will get passed.”

What Blackmon could not speak on was whether the bill would pass in its current version or if modifications would be made. In either case, he said, “I believe we will see hate crime legislation come to fruition.”

There are variations in the amount of time that it can take bills to pass into law, and Blackmon said that a lot depends on how involved it is and how well it’s written, but he hopes and believes that a hate crime bill will pass into law as quickly as possible.

“Georgia previously had a hate crime law that the Georgia State Supreme Court declared unconstitutional,” he revealed. “You do, but up to a fine line, have freedom of speech and freedom of expression, but then there’s the acting on it. If you act on it, what a hate crime bill would do is attach criminality to that action based on how you acted. Being that Georgia’s original hate crime law was declared unconstitutional,” Blackmon continued, “I think that’s going to require a very deliberate look at things.

“The truth of the matter is,” he further stated, “Georgia needs a hate crime bill. Georgia should have a hate crime law. But not only do we want it to symbolize who we are; we want it to operate in an effective and meaningful way.”

Aside from the budget and the passing of the prioritized bill, Blackmon said one of the things that he’d most see come out of the legislation is the return of the Georgia National Fair in October. “That would mean a lot to our financial system,” he pointed out. “Our local economy would really be helped if we could somehow make that happen.”

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