Georgia CommonsSenate · Introduced · 2025-2026 Regular Session
SB 301: State Flag, Seal, and Other Symbols; protection of government statues, monuments, plaques, banners, and other commemorative symbols; revise provisions
Last action March 6, 2026 · Senate Tabled
A Georgia Senate bill would toughen the state's monument protection law, letting almost anyone sue over damaged or removed statues and monuments, waiving state sovereign and officer immunity, and requiring a public registry of all monuments on government property.
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 the General Assembly's website lists.
In plain language
Georgia law already makes it a crime to deface or remove certain government-owned monuments, such as those honoring military service or historical events (O.C.G.A. § 50-3-1). This bill rewrites that law to broaden who can be sued and who can sue. It extends the same protections to privately owned monuments, lets any interested person or group, not just the monument's owner, bring a lawsuit for damages or an injunction, and lets a violator be forced to pay triple the repair cost plus attorney's fees. The bill also has the state waive its own sovereign immunity (the legal protection that normally shields government from lawsuits) and waives qualified immunity for public officials who violate the law, meaning the state and its employees could be sued directly. It requires any agency wanting to remove or relocate a monument to give 90 days' public notice and try to find another public site for it. It also creates a statewide registry of public monuments to be kept by the Department of Community Affairs, and it keeps the existing ban on ever altering the Confederate carving on Stone Mountain.
What the bill does
- Extends existing monument protection rules to cover privately owned monuments, not just those on government property.
- Lets any interested person, group, or organization sue over a damaged, destroyed, or relocated monument, even without a personal injury.
- Makes violators liable for triple the cost of repair or replacement plus attorney's fees and court costs.
- Waives the state's sovereign immunity and public officials' qualified immunity for claims brought under this law.
- Requires agencies to give 90 days' public notice and try to find a new public home for a monument before removing or relocating it.
- Creates a statewide registry of public monuments to be maintained by the Department of Community Affairs.
Who it affects
State and local government agencies, school boards, the Board of Regents and University System of Georgia institutions, public officials and employees, private monument owners, and any group or individual who wants to challenge damage to or removal of a monument, since the bill gives them legal standing to sue.
Why it matters
The changes make it easier for outside groups to sue over monument removals or damage, expose public officials and the state to direct lawsuits by waiving immunity, and slow down any agency decision to relocate a monument by adding a 90 day notice and search-for-a-new-site process.
Key provisions
- Section 1 rewrites O.C.G.A. § 50-3-1(b) to add 'officer,' 'agency,' and privately owned monuments to the list of entities and property covered by the ban on defacing, damaging, or removing monuments.
- Paragraph (4) sets treble damages (triple the repair or replacement cost), possible exemplary damages, and attorney's fees for anyone who violates the section.
- Paragraph (5) grants standing to any interested person, group, or legal entity to sue over a monument violation without needing to show personal injury.
- Paragraph (8) lets the Attorney General or a local district attorney represent the interests of monument owners and the state in enforcement actions.
- Paragraph (11) requires 90 days' public notice before an agency removes or relocates a monument and directs the agency to seek a third party willing to keep displaying it publicly.
- New subsection (e) directs the Department of Community Affairs to create and maintain a statewide registry of public monuments, with agencies reporting their monuments by a set deadline.
- New subsections (f) and (g) waive the state's sovereign immunity and public officials' qualified immunity for claims brought under this Code section.
- Subsection (c) is retained unchanged, permanently protecting the Confederate memorial carved on Stone Mountain from alteration, removal, or concealment.
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 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”
“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”
Discussed in meetings (5)
The House and Senate meetings that took this bill up, from their machine transcripts. Each account was written by Georgia Commons with AI and is not part of the record; the video is what was said.
Senate State and Local Governmental Operations Committee, February 5, 2026
From 0:17:21 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would clarify existing monument protections and address enforcement gaps. The sponsor described a public notice and input process for local governments seeking to remove unwanted monuments, relocation options, and court orders to stop unlawful actions before damage occurs. The sponsor also said the bill would create a statewide monument registry, protect privately owned monuments on public land without changing ownership, and explicitly authorize enforcement by the attorney general and district attorneys. According to the sponsor, misdemeanor liability would apply only to individuals, not firms or other entities. The sponsor cited recent monument defacement and damage in Athens and a historic cemetery in Milledgeville as reasons for the changes. The sponsor thanked the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia for working on the proposal. The committee approved the substitute by a 3-1 vote.
Senate Rules Committee, March 5, 2026
From 0:39:26 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said SB 301 would protect monuments while establishing a process for local governments to relocate them, including transfer or sale to a third party. A committee member asked whether someone could buy a monument to destroy it and whether it would have to remain publicly visible. The sponsor said destruction would remain prohibited, local recipients would receive priority, and visibility would be up to the recipient. The chair and sponsor described the proposal as allowing relocation rather than destruction, and the chair said it also addressed monuments being lost after removal. The committee unanimously included the bill in the floor-calendar package.
Senate floor session, March 6, 2026 (legislative day 28, part 2)
From 2:09:58 · Watch on the General Assembly's Vimeo channel · Confirmed by the bill's status history (Senate Taken from Table)
Summary by Georgia Commons: The sponsor said the bill would clarify monument removal procedures, including notice, public input, and relocation options, and create a statewide monument registry. The clerk read a committee substitute that also included provisions allowing certain lawsuits otherwise blocked by government immunity, and noted an attached minority report. One amendment sponsor proposed excluding depictions of people involved with the Ku Klux Klan or other racially motivated domestic terrorist organizations from monument protections. That member argued communities should be able to remove such monuments and cited a Savannah survey that the member said found 80 to 90 unmarked graves beneath a public square. A second amendment sponsor proposed removing protection for Confederate monuments, arguing that the Confederacy was formed to preserve slavery and should not be honored through protected monuments. After those presentations, the bill’s sponsor moved to table the bill. The chair announced that it was tabled. No votes on either amendment or final passage were recorded.
Status timeline
- Senate Tabled (Senate)
- Senate Third Read (Senate)
- Senate Taken from Table (Senate)
- Senate Tabled (Senate)
- Senate Read Second Time (Senate)
- Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute (Senate)
- Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
- Senate Hopper (Senate)
Sponsors
- Rick Williams (R, SD-25)
- Steve Gooch (R, SD-51)
- Randy Robertson (R, SD-29)
- Marty Harbin (R, SD-16)
- Frank Ginn (R, SD-47)
- Carden Summers (R, SD-13)
- Billy Hickman (R, SD-4)
- Russ Goodman (R, SD-8)
- Clint Dixon (R, SD-45)
- Lee Anderson (R, SD-24)
- Chuck Hufstetler (R, SD-52)
- Brandon Beach (R, SD-21)
- Jason Anavitarte (R, SD-31)
- Mike Hodges (R, SD-3)
- Ben Watson (R, SD-1)
- Timothy Bearden (R, SD-30)
- Shawn Still (R, SD-48)
- Bo Hatchett (R, SD-50)
- Blake Tillery (R, SD-19)
- Drew Echols (R, SD-49)
- Max Burns (R, SD-23)
- Chuck Payne (R, SD-54)
- Sam Watson (R, SD-11)
Topics
- Confederate monuments
- monument protection law
- sovereign immunity
- local government
- historic preservation