During a break in the Crossover Day action, House Speaker David Ralston was asked about Governor Nathan Deals statement today that legislators should be able to come to a resolution on religious liberty that would preserve the rights of people of faith without discrimination. The Speaker responded, I’ve been trying to to do that for
Raising an unstated but obvious threat of a veto over certain versions of “Religious Liberty” bills on the table in the legislature, Governor Nathan Deal today said that Georgia will remain a state that protects the freedom of religion but that does not require allowing discrimination. As tweeted by Greg Bluestein of the AJC: “I
In the week since the Georgia Senate passed a version of the Pastor Protection Act that included significant portions of Senator Greg Kirk’s First Amendment Defense Act, opposition to the bill as it stands now has grown. While it might have been easy for legislators to brush off the complaints of a telephone service provider
With all the bickering about RFRA/FADA/PPA, I think we should highlight a group that is slightly outside the norm. That group is called Georgia Republicans for the Future. It’s an interesting group to say the least. The group is not the chamber type nor is the group the evangelical type. It’s mostly young, conservative Georgians
House Speaker David Ralston told reporters today that the Pastor Protection Act as amended by the Senate is on his desk, awaiting action by the House, which could take one of several forms. However, with the House passing campus carry and being in session until late this afternoon, nothing has been done with it so
On Friday, the Senate passed its substitute for House Bill 757, the Pastor Protection Act. The substitute added language from Senator Greg Kirk’s First Amendment Defense Act that forbids government interference with a natural person’s or faith based organization’s belief that marriage is reserved to two people. The measure is headed back to the House,
Members of the Georgia Senate are misleading the public in a shameful attempt to impose a full throated anti-LGBT agenda. On Friday, the Georgia Senate approved HB757. HB757 was once called the Pastor Protection Act, but HB757 is unworthy of the name in its current form. Indeed, after the Senate hijacked HB757 by inserting into
We often hear about how good legislation is crafted. A legislator comes up with an idea, writes a bill, gets suggestions for improvements in committee, and passes it in one chamber, only to send it to the other side where the process repeats itself. Eventually, one hopes, a bill is perfected and becomes law. Such
Those attending a Tuesday Senate Rules Committee hearing believed it would consider two bills, the Pastor Protection Act, sent over from the House, and the First Amendment Defense Act, sponsored by Senator Greg Kirk of Americus. Instead, what they got was a substitute for the Pastor Protection Act that took the original, and added on
The growing spat between Speaker Ralston and Senator Josh McKoon of Columbus got a bit more tense today. To review, on Thursday, as the House was preparing to pass the Pastor Protection Act, Senator McKoon took to the well to lament that the Pastor Protection Act was in reality a Politician Protection Act. As the
