House Judiciary Committee, March 23, 2026

Transcript

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1. 0:07:53

   All right, let's see.

2. 0:07:57

   All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna get this thing started. Um, if you would, please join me in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the many blessings you've given us. Thank you for this opportunity to serve our fellow citizens. Please give us wisdom and, uh, discernment over the issues that we face. Uh, in Jesus' name I pray, amen.

3. 0:08:18

   Amen.

4. 0:08:19

   All right. Um, I'll call on the gentleman from DOR to come up and put this, talk about the bill.

5. 0:08:26

   Oh.

6. 0:08:28

   I'm assuming you know the changes that have been made in it.

7. 0:08:30

   I am aware.

8. 0:08:32

   All right.

9. 0:08:32

   I am aware. I think we got it right this time.

10. 0:08:35

    Well, we'll

11. 0:08:38

    ... We'll see. Um-

12. 0:08:40

    Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for having me out here. Uh, you know what they say, third time is the charm, and I'm hoping that that is true today with this little piece of agency legislation. Um, so I will be brief, as I think we all are, uh, fully aware of what this bill entails and the good we're trying to do within it, and now we make sure there's no bad in it. So in this substitute, you'll see anything in relation to cryptocurrency or achievement to the state has been wholly and entirely removed. What this bill does is allow the framework for an exact match program for us to give money back to Georgians without them having to ask for it, and allows for a small estate affidavit that'll allow heir claims to be processed more smoothly in our system.

13. 0:09:24

    And the same changes apply to the small estate affidavit that, uh, Vice Chair Reeves had implemented in the previous iteration. And, um, I would appreciate your favorable consideration.

14. 0:09:36

    Okay. I'll call on, uh, Representative Silcox. There was a paragraph in the previous version of it that didn't use the word estate, but basically did the same thing.

15. 0:09:49

    Right, and that's gone.

16. 0:09:50

    That's gone? Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Any questions from the committee?

17. 0:09:59

    Hearing none, what's the will of the committee?

18. 0:10:01

    Make motion to pass.

19. 0:10:02

    Second.

20. 0:10:03

    All right, motion and second. Any further discussion? Any amendments? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

21. 0:10:09

    Aye.

22. 0:10:09

    Any opposed? See how well it worked?

23. 0:10:13

    I wanna, I wanna know if that's a record for the fastest bill out of this committee, but, uh-

24. 0:10:17

    Not, not quite. We've had them a little quicker.

25. 0:10:19

    Thank you, guys. Thank you very much.

26. 0:10:21

    Thank, thank you for your presentation.

27. 0:10:22

    Absolutely.

28. 0:10:23

    All right. Where's... Okay, we go to 532.

29. 0:10:31

    Okay.

30. 0:10:36

    All right. Uh, next bill is, uh, Senate Bill 532. And this bill has been gutted, and the, uh, Gwinnett Judgeship Bill has been inserted in its place.

31. 0:10:51

    Move to pass.

32. 0:10:52

    Second.

33. 0:10:52

    All right, motion and a second. Um, Representative Evans?

34. 0:10:56

    Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just had a question. The other, all the other judges are moving, including Fulton, do we know? Is that... Um, because I'm assuming that's why we're doing this.

35. 0:11:05

    I, I don't know.

36. 0:11:06

    Mm-hmm.

37. 0:11:06

    Um, I know that this has all been caught up, um, Gwinnett being one of the key ones that have kind of stopped everything, so hopefully-

38. 0:11:13

    Okay

39. 0:11:13

    ... this will free up the others.

40. 0:11:15

    Okay. I just didn't know-

41. 0:11:16

    And, and-

42. 0:11:16

    ... if the others were caught, if we wanted to put them in here.

43. 0:11:19

    Well, I think they're, they're over on the Senate side and will come back over to us, but I don't know that for sure.

44. 0:11:24

    Okay. Fair enough. Thank you.

45. 0:11:25

    Mm-hmm. All right. Um, any amendments to the bill? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

46. 0:11:32

    Aye.

47. 0:11:32

    Any opposed? All right, bill passes.

48. 0:11:41

    All right. I know there were some... The next bill is, um, Senate Bill 552. And, uh, I know there were some changes in that, um...

49. 0:11:54

    Can you pause until we get Rob down here, Mr.-

50. 0:11:57

    Yeah, I would- I'd rather have him 'cause he's the one that's worked on all that. So, uh, let's-

51. 0:12:01

    Well, and I've gotten some emails, um, because there's no, there's, there's kind of new parameters on this one. It doesn't say any times.

52. 0:12:11

    Yeah, I-

53. 0:12:11

    Some weird times this can happen. Um, there's been concerns that it could be after hours and...

54. 0:12:19

    I would just ask us to, to, Mr. Chairman, if we could just suspend the meeting for a minute.

55. 0:12:23

    Yeah. Yeah. And, and I will just point out that on line 34, that seems to be drawing a lot of the opposition, so.

56. 0:12:32

    It is. That's right.

57. 0:12:33

    Yeah. And w- at this time, we'll just take a recess and wait till, um, uh, Representative Leverett gets here.

58. 0:12:44

    Would, would y'all like take it up Wednesday?

59. 0:12:47

    Take it up Wednesday?

60. 0:12:50

    Mm-hmm.

61. 0:12:50

    I gotta stay till Senate Judiciary at 6:30 tonight, Mr. Chairman.

62. 0:12:53

    Yeah.

63. 0:12:53

    So I, I think, I think this committee can stay a little later today too.

64. 0:12:56

    Yeah. Yeah. We can. We can.

65. 0:12:58

    Thank you.

66. 0:12:59

    Hopefully not too long.

67. 0:13:01

    Hopefully not too long. I was gonna-

68. 0:13:02

    Does anybody know where Rob went?

69. 0:13:03

    I'll just pull it up on my-

70. 0:13:04

    Look this-

71. 0:13:04

    Okay.

72. 0:13:06

    ... this bill. We'll look and see.

73. 0:13:07

    All right.

74. 0:23:04

    All right.

75. 0:23:06

    Uh, yeah. But I think you were planning on it anyway.

76. 0:23:09

    Yeah, you need to sit up here.

77. 0:23:10

    If, if, if you wanna sit up here, you're the last bill.

78. 0:23:13

    Oh, I'm okay.

79. 0:23:14

    Yeah.

80. 0:23:15

    You had a word? No, I'm good.

81. 0:23:17

    Have we got, um-

82. 0:23:18

    I love that last-

83. 0:23:19

    ... Evans and-

84. 0:23:19

    ... resort bill you had today

85. 0:23:20

    ... yeah, I thought you might enjoy that one. Representative Evans, can you-

86. 0:23:24

    I don't know where you got that idea from, but it was way ...

87. 0:23:29

    And you had some elephant about it, too.

88. 0:23:32

    How many cases does that shift to the magistrate?

89. 0:23:35

    I don't-

90. 0:23:35

    Do you have that count?

91. 0:23:36

    ... I don't know. Less than, less than 30 would, I think

92. 0:23:41

    Less than 30. I think that's an interesting statement.

93. 0:23:43

    Less than 30 .

94. 0:23:44

    But I would say-

95. 0:23:45

    I know that

96. 0:23:45

    ... in DeKalb County, 10,000, 15,000 more cases on the magistrate court judges.

97. 0:23:51

    Come on, trial by fire.

98. 0:23:53

    Council, council was okay with 25.

99. 0:23:57

    Okay.

100. 0:23:59

     All right, we have a quorum, and, uh-

101. 0:24:02

     Mm

102. 0:24:02

     ... we wanna go ahead and get started. This is the last bill of the day, Senate Bill 552, True Patriotism and Universal Student Access Act. And, um, I understand, uh, Chairman Leverett, you've had some changes made to it.

103. 0:24:16

     I, I did, Mr. Chairman. Um, I, I, I would say, in, in all candor, I don't know that we've addressed every concern that's been shared, but I, I, I believe I have, even if those for whom I'm making the changes don't completely agree.

104. 0:24:29

     All right.

105. 0:24:30

     Um, so we added language-

106. 0:24:31

     But before you go, LC492838S, is that right?

107. 0:24:35

     I think that's it. I actually did not bring my copy.

108. 0:24:38

     Oh.

109. 0:24:38

     Um, if y'all have a spare. Thank you.

110. 0:24:42

     Do you got a sub or...?

111. 0:24:45

     That, I think, is the sub.

112. 0:24:46

     Okay.

113. 0:24:47

     Yep, that's the sub. So-

114. 0:24:49

     4938 is the sub

115. 0:24:49

     ... LC492838S is the substitute that I'm proposing. Um, you know, the, we, we passed it at one time. It came back. It w- the Rules Committee sent it back. So the changes I made were ones that are attempting to make it clear that the bill is about just treating everyone equal. It doesn't mandate the school necessarily to do something or not do something, as long as they don't discriminate and are, are, uh, fair in the way they do it. So we added in line 42 that nothing in the code section shall be construed or applied to require a public school to establish a limited open forum.

116. 0:25:26

     That's basically a, a-

117. 0:25:28

     Okay

118. 0:25:28

     ... where you allow discussion, but subject to some reasonable restriction. It, they can, you know, prohibit any groups from using school property to meet if they want to. I think that's called a closed forum. Um, uh, so this is not mandating they do that, but it just, you'll notice there are places where it says, "If the school maintains a limited open forum, then they have to do certain things."

119. 0:25:49

     Okay.

120. 0:25:50

     So we added that, and then at the end of the bill, in lines 81 through 91, that paragraph H was just one continual paragraph. We added what is now item f- four through seven, uh, in lines 86 through 91, and that, um, as a result of adding all those additional things, uh, Legislative Council just broke it out into separate m- kind of bullets, for lack of a better m- term. Um, and we're using some language in there.

121. 0:26:22

     We, we had to be careful, because you can, uh, students do have constitutional rights, and you can't legislatively impinge on those rights. So we tried to use language that made it clear, um, that you can do things that are, uh, permitted from some of the case law. So you can prohibit or restrict conduct that either causes or could reasonably be forecast to cause a material and substantial disruption of the working discipline of the school, prohibit or restrict conduct that either causes or could reasonably be forecast to cause an infringement on the rights of other students, prohibit or restrict conduct involving violence, threats or harassment, and enforce students' attendance policies, rules and requirements.

122. 0:26:58

     Uh, that, that, that was an attempt to address some concerns that I had heard, Mr. Chairman, and, uh, believe we have, uh, believe we've, we've done so in a way where this bill should not cause some of the problems people in the school area was concerned about.

123. 0:27:12

     Thank you for the work you've done on it. I, uh, I did have a couple of my, uh, school superintendents. I, I'm sure they've been talking, and they both were complaining about what I underlined, uh, in there, lines, uh-

124. 0:27:25

     33

125. 0:27:26

     ... 33. Is that what it was?

126. 0:27:28

     36.

127. 0:27:28

     Yeah.

128. 0:27:29

     Before, during and after. Yeah, I've, I've heard that concern. Um-

129. 0:27:33

     But you're, um, you're saying that the, they don't have to let that happen. They can restrict that. Is that what I'm hearing?

130. 0:27:40

     Uh, yeah. Well, I think they can, as long as they do it fairly-

131. 0:27:42

     Fairly

132. 0:27:42

     ... um, and, and, and equally. Um, and, uh, I know one, one concern I had is about the walkouts in the middle of lunch. Well, I, I, I think that could be a substant- material and substantial disruption. And, or people getting up and saying, "I'm, I'm protesting by leaving my math quiz."

133. 0:27:59

     Mm.

134. 0:27:59

     Um, "This is a valid act of protest. You can't make me take the math quiz." This, this just, we tried to add in that language that said they can still enforce student attendance policies, rules and requirements.

135. 0:28:10

     Okay.

136. 0:28:10

     You know, you can, you can be said, "Yes, you have to attend math class." Or-

137. 0:28:15

     Or math test

138. 0:28:15

     ... or math test.

139. 0:28:16

     Even if you're not ready.

140. 0:28:17

     That's right.

141. 0:28:18

     Okay. All right. Uh, Representative Silcox?

142. 0:28:21

     Yeah, I was just gonna... Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I was just gonna elaborate on lines 36, or 33 through 36. I think the, the probably after-school, um, is the, is the really concern, is to obligate faculty or security officers or whatever after school is, is the issue there.

143. 0:28:43

     Well, again, it's not requiring you to make them available after school. It's if you decide to let them be after school, you've gotta let every, any group that wants to use it after school use it.

144. 0:28:52

     Mm-hmm.

145. 0:28:52

     Uh, you can't, you can't tell some groups they can and some groups they can't, unless you just don't have space.

146. 0:28:58

     Okay. Um, I guess that includes regular activities like sports too, right? I mean, if you have sports, then you have to allow the protests too? I mean, that's, that would be my-

147. 0:29:10

     No, no.

148. 0:29:11

     That's what I'm saying.

149. 0:29:12

     No, I don't believe that's occurring under the law.

150. 0:29:13

     It'd have to be similar activities. If you allowed one pres- protest group, you'd have to allow another protest group, is what you're saying.

151. 0:29:19

     Correct.

152. 0:29:20

     So it can be different categories.

153. 0:29:22

     Hold on one, one quick... That's right. It's, I'm trying to find-

154. 0:29:25

     Okay

155. 0:29:26

     ... um, an email, because there is actually a federal law in this space already that... Let's back home on here. Um,

156. 0:29:41

     there's a, there's a federal, um- igual Access Act, which actually supports portions of this track.

157. 0:29:47

     Okay.

158. 0:29:48

     And so it already applies to schools. Um, and it, um, uh, like the language, I think in C1, it, it just is almost a copy of the portions of the Equal Access Act. So, I, um, and some of the terms here, non-curricular, those are terms that, that come out of that act. So-

159. 0:30:10

     Okay

160. 0:30:10

     ... schools already are subject to certain restrictions, um, under the federal law, which this is kind of confirming. And so I guess that was part of the reason I didn't feel like, uh, some of the horribles that were being paraded about the bill were completely realistic because there already, there are already limitations on what schools can and can't do in this space by virtue of federal law.

161. 0:30:34

     Okay.

162. 0:30:34

     Um, that we are adding a state law, but a lot of it is, does track that. And so I don't, I don't sense that this is gonna cause some of the tr- problems it's, that it is feared it is going to cause, um, it, but that's my opinion.

163. 0:30:48

     Okay. Thank you.

164. 0:30:49

     Okay.

165. 0:30:50

     All right. Um, 16. Who's got that? Representative Oliver.

166. 0:30:56

     I apologize. I must have missed some other earlier hearing. What is the specific example in Georgia that requires us to pass this bill?

167. 0:31:06

     I don't think there's any requirement that you pass the bill, Chair Lady Oliver. But I would like you to pass it.

168. 0:31:10

     What is the specific example in Georgia of a problem that this bill may address?

169. 0:31:15

     I, I don't have that. I believe the sponsor did, but, um, they have sent me some articles that I've forwarded, but I have not read them yet.

170. 0:31:22

     Who's the sponsor? I'm sorry. I thought it was-

171. 0:31:24

     Ben Watson

172. 0:31:24

     ... I thought it was you.

173. 0:31:25

     No, it's Ben Watson.

174. 0:31:27

     It ... Forgive me for not being here, Mr. Chairman. Was there any, ever a specific example of a need for this bill given by Dr. Watson?

175. 0:31:38

     Don't recall that, unless somebody else does on the committee.

176. 0:31:40

     Can anybody give me a specific example in your experience in Georgia about why we need this bill?

177. 0:31:50

     I, I don't have a specific example of something that occurred in Georgia. Um, I do understand, however, that there are incidents that would violate this bill.

178. 0:32:01

     Oh, what might instance might that be in Georgia that you have as ... That you can speak to us about?

179. 0:32:06

     I, I, I'm sorry. I, I don't, I don't know. I trust the sponsor not to misrepresent anything to me or the committee.

180. 0:32:09

     I'm looking at lines 51 to 53. This, uh, student activity means no protest, uh, no sponsorship. So it wouldn't be a, the, uh, Druid Hills Soccer Club that wants to meet at 9:00. It would be a student led. But I can't ... Uh, does the school have any responsibility if the student says, "I wanna have a protest at 10:00 tonight on the football field"? Do they have any responsibility to be there?

181. 0:32:36

     No, not unless they've allowed someone else to conduct a protest at 10:00 on the football field.

182. 0:32:40

     So this means that you're telling your community, "Use our f- property for any purpose you want to at any time of day."

183. 0:32:48

     No.

184. 0:32:48

     Mm-mm.

185. 0:32:49

     I, I don't-

186. 0:32:49

     No

187. 0:32:49

     ... I didn't understand that to be the Chair Lady's question. I thought the Chair Lady's question was, do you have to allow, uh, some protest group to use the football field at 10:00 at night? And the answer is no, unless you have allowed a different protest group to do the same thing.

188. 0:33:04

     What is the message that this bill sends from the majority party's perspective? I'm trying to figure out what message is being sent.

189. 0:33:11

     Well, I think it's ... Well, I, I mean, from my understanding, it's the same message that the federal law tries to send, is that schools have to be, have to treat groups equally regardless of the particular inclination of the message. If they're going to allow a limited open forum, they need to allow a limited open forum, subject to the restrictions we've, we've tried to conf- set out there at the end of the bill.

190. 0:33:32

     But no restrictions as to supervision of their property, school property at any time of day?

191. 0:33:39

     Yes. Yes, they can, they can ... If they wanna say you can never use the football field for any kind of, uh, extracurricular activity, they can. It's just if they, if they allow one group to use it, they need to allow other groups that might have differing viewpoints-

192. 0:33:53

     Thank you

193. 0:33:53

     ... use it at the same time.

194. 0:33:54

     Thank you, Mr. Chair.

195. 0:33:56

     And Whip Burchett.

196. 0:34:00

     Oh, I was just gonna elaborate on 33 to 36. What, the way I understand this, and I, I understand that the, um, uh, representative's concern, but, um, as, it's my understanding, like, the, the example that was given was football. Football is not a student organized, um, extracurricular. That's a school organized. Like, my kid doesn't go out and just organize a football team. The, the school has organized it, and so I think that's different than, than a baseball team, basketball team-

197. 0:34:32

     That was my question

198. 0:34:32

     ... the traditional, um, non-ec- extra- extracurricular. And it also, it looks like, it may not address your concern, but it also looks like that 33 to 36 only speaks to, uh, political activities, um, versus, um, I guess, you know, any other activities, again, like sports or basketball or chess club or any of those things. And is that, is that your understanding, that, that, that li- those lines 33 to 36 speak only to the political activities of a student organized group?

199. 0:35:07

     Uh, yes. Yes, 'cause it's organized partisan or nonpartisan political activities to the same extent they're permitted to organize other non-curricular student activities.

200. 0:35:16

     And it is, is it your perspective, uh, um, and your understanding of the bill that this bill doesn't require that a school allow any partisan or political activities at the school, but just that if it does allow one side, it must let, allow the other side?

201. 0:35:29

     Yes.

202. 0:35:30

     Okay. Thank you.

203. 0:35:33

     Representative Kelley.

204. 0:35:36

     I was going down the same line of questioning there that the, that the Whip had, Mr. Chairman, but if I'm the last question, I'd like to make a motion.

205. 0:35:45

     State your motion.

206. 0:35:45

     Move do pass.

207. 0:35:46

     Second.

208. 0:35:48

     Second.

209. 0:35:51

     Representative Oliver?

210. 0:35:52

     I just have one more question. As an example of 33, we- we're not talking about school-sponsored activities. So if students want to have a protest at 10:00 at night to say m- "Well, I wanna have free marijuana for everybody," they're entitled to do that?

211. 0:36:07

     No.

212. 0:36:08

     Why are they not entitled to do that? It's, it's not... Is it political? It's a political statement to say, "I want free marijuana for everybody."

213. 0:36:14

     Because line 58 says, "Persons and non-person political groups shall be given the same access to public school facilities for assembly as is given to other non-curricular groups."

214. 0:36:25

     So if they're-

215. 0:36:25

     So if they're not scheduling those at 10:00 in the evening for anyone, then they're not subject to that. I understand the outlandish, you know, point you're trying to make with your question, but that's not the- the... that's not what's permitted in the reasonableness of this bill.

216. 0:36:39

     I think it says that a per- a group could say, "We want free marijuana," and then another group could say, "We don't want free marijuana," and this would be allowed at 10:00 at night.

217. 0:36:47

     I don't think they have to allow it at any certain time. I think they have to say that if there are times where they allow non, uh, curricular groups to meet, then they should allow the free idea of, the free exchange of ideas inside the school system, and I don't understand why the minority party is so scared of students having an opportunity to voice their opinions in the school system.

218. 0:37:09

     I'm not really upset about students having... I think you're right. To, if they just clean up their room, we'd all be better off, rather than just tell them where they could go protest at 10:00 at night.

219. 0:37:19

     I, I... And also, Mr. Chairman, while I don't profess to be, have a lot of experience or be particularly, uh, knowledgeable of the, um, impact of, uh, distribution of free marijuana, um, I would think that the example that Chair Lady has, uh, offered could be considered conduct that would reasonably be for- be forecast to cause a material and substantial disruption of the working discipline of the school. If everybody's high on pot, I'm not sure how much discipline and work's gonna get done in the schools.

220. 0:37:52

     Well, I'll, I'll just end this, Mr. Chairman, I promise not to interrupt or say another word. It just gave another point about why this bill is not necessary and cause more trouble than it's worth.

221. 0:38:03

     The lady's entitled to her opinion. I gr- respectfully disagree.

222. 0:38:08

     All right.

223. 0:38:12

     H- Vice Chair Reeves, do you have a question?

224. 0:38:14

     No.

225. 0:38:15

     All right. All right, I got a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye.

226. 0:38:22

     Aye.

227. 0:38:22

     Any opposed?

228. 0:38:24

     No.

229. 0:38:24

     The ayes have it. And that's the agenda we had today, so we're adjourned.

230. 0:38:33

     Thank you, Mr. Chairman.