Georgia CommonsHB 467: State flag, seal, and other symbols; protection of government statues and monuments; revise provisions
Last action March 6, 2026 · House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute
A House committee substitute would expand Georgia's law protecting government monuments and statues, adding privately owned monuments, creating a state registry, and waiving sovereign and qualified immunity for violations.
The summaries below were written by an AI model (claude-sonnet-5) from the text of the bill and are not part of it. Quote the text, not the summary. The stored text is the Comm Sub version, the latest LegiScan holds.
In plain language
Georgia law already makes it a crime to deface or remove certain government owned monuments and memorials. This bill, a substitute for HB 467, rewrites that law (O.C.G.A. § 50-3-1) to broaden who can be sued, what counts as a monument, and how violations are punished. It extends the law's protections to privately owned monuments, adds officers and private owners to the list of people who can be liable, and lets any interested person or group sue for damages without having to prove a personal injury. The bill also creates a 90 day public notice process before a government agency can remove or relocate a monument, sets up a statewide registry of public monuments run by the Department of Community Affairs, and lets the Attorney General or local district attorneys bring enforcement actions on behalf of the state. It explicitly waives the state's sovereign immunity and any public officer's qualified immunity for claims brought under this law, and it keeps the existing rule that the Confederate memorial carved into Stone Mountain can never be altered, removed, or obscured.
What the bill does
- Expands the existing monument protection law to cover privately owned monuments in addition to publicly owned ones, treating them the same for legal protection.
- Allows any interested person, group, or legal entity to sue over a damaged, destroyed, or improperly relocated monument without proving a personal injury.
- Sets treble damages (three times repair or replacement cost) plus possible exemplary damages and attorney's fees for violations, funded by money collected from the violator.
- Requires a 90 day public notice period, published in the county's legal organ, before any government agency can remove or relocate a monument from public display.
- Creates a statewide public monument registry inside the Department of Community Affairs, requiring agencies to report monument locations and ownership by a set deadline.
- Waives the state's sovereign immunity and any public officer's qualified immunity for claims brought under this monument protection law.
Who it affects
State and local government agencies, school boards, the University System of Georgia, private property owners with historical monuments, individuals or groups who want to challenge monument removal, the Attorney General and district attorneys, and the Department of Community Affairs, which would run the new monument registry.
Why it matters
The changes make it easier for private citizens and groups to sue over monument damage or removal, extend legal protection to privately owned monuments, and force local governments through a longer public notice process before relocating monuments, while also exposing the state and officials to lawsuits they previously could avoid through immunity defenses.
Key provisions
- Section 1 amends O.C.G.A. § 50-3-1 to broaden the definitions of 'agency,' 'monument,' and 'officer,' and extends the misdemeanor prohibition on defacing monuments to cover privately owned ones too.
- Paragraph (4) sets treble damages plus possible exemplary damages, attorney's fees, and court costs for violators, with recovered money used to repair the monument.
- Paragraph (5) grants standing to sue to any interested person or group 'without regard to ownership of the monument or a specialized and personalized injury.'
- Paragraph (8) authorizes the Attorney General or local district attorneys to represent the state's and monument owners' interests in enforcement actions.
- Paragraph (11) requires agencies to give 90 days' public notice before removing or relocating a monument and to offer it to interested third parties for continued public display.
- New subsection (e) creates a statewide monument registry maintained by the Department of Community Affairs, requiring agencies to report monument details by a set deadline.
- New subsections (f) and (g) waive the state's sovereign immunity and any public officer's qualified immunity for claims brought under this Code section.
- Retains existing subsection (c) protecting the Confederate memorial carved on Stone Mountain from ever being altered, removed, or obscured.
From the bill
“No claimant shall be required to show a particularized or personal concrete injury to make a claim for damages because the General Assembly of the State of Georgia finds the enforcement of this Code section to be a public right”
“the memorial to the heroes of the Confederate States of America graven upon the face of Stone Mountain shall never be altered, removed, concealed, or obscured in any fashion”
“The General Assembly of the State of Georgia explicitly hereby waives sovereign immunity for any and all civil actions, causes of action, and claims that may be asserted against the State of Georgia or its political subdivisions under this Code section”
Status timeline
- House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
- House Withdrawn, Recommitted (House)
- House Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (House)
- House Second Readers (House)
- House First Readers (House)
- House Hopper (House)
Sponsors
- Alan Powell (R, HD-033)
- Karen Mathiak (R, HD-082)
- Devan Seabaugh (R, HD-034)
- Steve Tarvin (R, HD-002)
- Mike Cameron (R, HD-001)
- Darlene Taylor (R, HD-173)
Topics
- Confederate monuments
- historic preservation
- sovereign immunity
- local government law
- Stone Mountain