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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2006 > January > 25
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Georgia chief justice: “Legal crisis created by the disintegration of the family”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia’s chief justice told state lawmakers today that the time has come to deal with “the legal crisis created by the disintegration of the family.�
The growing dysfunction of Georgia’s families is exacting a great toll on the state’s legal system, Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears told a joint session of the state House and Senate in the House chambers.
Civil cases involving domestic relations disputes now outnumber all misdemeanor and felony cases combined, and two-thirds of the young people convicted of major felonies from 1970 to 1995 came from single or no-parent homes, she said.
“We must restore the importance of marriage and family as the foundation of our society,� said Sears, as lawmakers in the crowded chamber stood and applauded.
Sears, who last year became Georgia’s first African-American female chief justice, was warmly received during her State of the Judiciary speech. In 2004, she withstood a hard-fought re-election campaign by a conservative challenger who called her too liberal for the state’s highest court.
But in her first address to the General Assembly, Sears took time to talk about family values, while also addressing courthouse security, judicial independence, new justice initiatives and the state’s new public defender system.
Sears praised Fulton County’s new family court pilot project that consolidates multiple domestic relations cases involving the same family under one judge. This helps keep the decision-making process consistent, she said.
Sears noted that a large and growing body of social science research shows that the well-being of children is strongly linked to a healthy marriage. “So devising strategies for Georgians to get married and stay married to the people with whom they have children must be an important aim of government and the court,� she said.
The chief justice also implored lawmakers to work with the judiciary to improve security in the state’s courthouses. She cited the “horrific incident� on March 11, 2005, when Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Brandau and sheriff’s deputy Hoyt Teasley were shot to death at the Fulton County courthouse.
“Hard working, decent court officials, litigants and their families should never, ever have to face violent attack for carrying out their duties,� Sears said. “We look forward to working with you to find solutions for the security problems we face.�
Sears told the General Assembly that new drug courts have been “a resounding success.� They now operate in 39 judicial circuits and the goal is to have the drug courts operating in all 49 circuits, she said.
Sears asked the General Assembly to approve funding for 10 new judgeships to meet increasing case loads statewide. She also urged lawmakers to keep their commitment to fund Georgia’s new public defender system, created by the Legislature in 2003.
“That system, I am pleased to report, is off to a great start,� Sears said.
Permalink | | Categories: Breaking news
House approves Cobb school redistricting bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House voted 111 to 47 today in favor of a contentious local bill dealing with school redistricting in Cobb County.
House Bill 1068, sponsored by Rules Committee Chairman Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs), would prohibit the school system from using race as a factor in redrawing attendance lines for all public schools in Cobb County.
Ehrhart lives in the southwest Cobb area that would be affected by a pending Cobb County School Board decision to redraw attendance lines for McEachern High School and a new high school opening north of McEachern, which is off New Macland Road.
The Cobb schools proposal would redefine attendance areas to avoid an overwhelmingly black enrollment at McEachern.
Some lawmakers have protested Ehrhart’s involvement because students in his neighborhood would remain at McEachern. One of Ehrhart’s children is in middle school, about to attend high school.
Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan (D-Austell) denounced Ehrhart’s bill and declared a vote for it as “voting for segregation in Cobb County.�
“I don’t believe it’s the case, in fact, I’m certain it’s not the case,� House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said, cutting off Morgan’s microphone at one point in the debate.
Morgan and a handful of black House members protested the Legislature’s involvement in a local issue.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Breaking news
Voter ID bill approved
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A controversial bill to require that voters show a state-approved photo identification card at the polls won final legislative approval this morning.
The Georgia House, by a vote of 111 to 60, signed off on technical changes made Tuesday to the bill by the state Senate.
The bill, which is expected to be challenged by the ACLU and other groups, now goes to the governor to be signed into law.
GOP leaders introduced the bill, in hopes of appeasing a federal court judge who barred the state from enforcing a similar measure passed last year on grounds that it was tantamount to a poll tax.
The new bill mandates that all 159 county voter registration offices be available to make picture IDs for voters who don’t have a valid driver’s license or state-issued ID card.
State Rep. DuBose Porter of Dublin, the Democratic leader in the House, denounced passage of the bill as unnecessary and an attempt by the GOP “to rig this November’s elections.”.
He said the GOP has not been able to document a single case of fraud involving election-day voting.
“Aren’t we just speaking about a problem that doesn’t exist?” Porter said.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) argued that there is a real problem. “There is not a substantiated case because they don’t check for ID, so they don’t know people aren’t showing up with proper ID. That’s why it’s not caught.”
In a short but heated exchange that followed, Porter said Republicans fail to acknowledge that current law requires voters to have one of 17 forms of identification.
Richardson shot back: “And those IDs as you wrote them when you were in charge allowed a sex change court order to be acceptable as ID to vote in the United States of America.
“We found that unacceptable,” he said. “That was listed in the code … an order from the court approving a sex change operation, a utility bill was what you thought was acceptable ID.”
He cut off further discussion of the bill, saying he was exercising his discretion and following his believe that further debate would not change the vote outcome.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Breaking news
Government Taking of Private Property
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Government has the power - through something known as eminent domain - to take private property through forced sales for public benefit. It’s most often used to string power lines, build roads, schools and other public needs. Recently, however, some local governments have targeted property labeled as “blighted,” and condemned it to make way for “urban renewal” projects. But in doing so, the government has sometimes turned the property over to private developers to build shopping centers and other ventures believed to be better for communities. Georgia legislators are worried that some governments are over-reaching their eminent domain powers. Several legislators have filed proposals making it more difficult for government to take private land. Should it be tougher for government to seize private property, even though the landowner is compensated for it? Or is seizing blighted property to make way for new projects - even private ones - okay?
