Key Outcomes of This Year’s Georgia Legislative Session

Authored by Allegra Lawrence-Hardy and Maia Cogen. Reprinted with permission from the April 19, 2024 edition of the Daily Report from Law.com | ALM Media Properties, LLC. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. All rights reserved.

The key outcomes of this year’s Georgia legislative session have implications for companies doing business in Georgia and for everyone interested in the outcome of the next presidential election. In the 2024 legislative session, Georgia’s General Assembly debated hotly contested laws that affect education, tort reform, health care, DEI and ballot access in Georgia. Gov. Brian Kemp will have until May 7 to sign bills that passed both chambers. This session’s highs and lows, against the backdrop of the evolving political and regulatory landscape, affect Georgians, businesses in the state marketplace, and all citizens concerned about the next presidential election.

Legislation Affecting Schools and Children
Decisions at the legislative level will once again affect the quality of education in Georgia and businesses that rely on the development of the State’s future workforce. Education continued to be a point of contention in the 2024 legislative session, with Georgia’s General Assembly addressing issues that have been hotly debated across the country.

Joining states like Texas, Florida and Arizona, Georgia’s General Assembly passed SB 233, a school voucher bill that would provide a $6,500 voucher per year to parents whose children are enrolled in public schools that rank in Georgia’s bottom 25% for academic achievement. Those who opposed the bill argued it would divert funds from already underresourced schools and widen the gap for educational opportunities in the State, particularly for special-needs students. The opposition also argued that the bill favors children in metropolitan areas.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Though there were increased national lobbying efforts evidenced throughout the session, anti-DEI bills that would have advanced more conservative values in the state’s schools did not pass. While HB 1104 was a bill written initially to address mental health concerns, the re-constituted HB 1104 included provisions that would have restricted the ability of trans-children to play sports, restricted which bathrooms and locker rooms trans-children could use and restricted the teaching of sexual education. This bill failed in the House. SB 390, which also did not pass, would have banned the American Library Association in schools.

Tort Reform
Although many in Georgia expected tort reform to be a priority for the 2024 legislative session, the session yielded mixed results. With SB 426, insurance carriers doing business in Georgia may now face less liability and less litigation from plaintiffs injured in motor accidents. The bill, which limits a plaintiff’s ability to sue motor carriers and their insurers simultaneously, is awaiting the Governor’s signature. Companies must still grapple with potential liability for the tortious actions of third parties on company premises, however, which is an issue the Georgia Landowners Protection Act sought to address.

Failure to Expand Medicaid
Businesses that rely on a healthy workforce will continue to be affected by the decision to have Georgia remain one of 10 states, including Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wyoming and Wisconsin, that have refused to accept federal funding to make more people eligible for Medicaid. Although Medicaid expansion failed, a separate bill that reformed Certificate of Need (CON) requirements, making it easier to build healthcare facilities, passed. These issues will likely be revisited in the next session.

Changes to Georgia’s Election Laws
As expected, Georgia’s General Assembly continued to pass legislation affecting election administration in Georgia that may directly affect the 2024 presidential election. In the run-up to the 2021 U.S. Senate runoff election, over 350,000 people were challenged in an effort led by groups outside of Georgia.

Although Georgia is not the only state that allows mass voter challenges, Georgia has one of the most permissive voter challenge laws in the country. Georgia law places no requirements on challengers to identify the source of personal information for each voter challenged (like New Hampshire’s voter challenge law.) It does not limit the number of voters a single individual can challenge. County boards of elections are burdened by strict legal requirements to address every single voter challenge without additional funding or resource support. SB 189, which passed, fails to address the flaws in Georgia’s voter challenge law and, instead, allows challenges to voters based on the National Change of Address database, a database that is inappropriate for this purpose. Georgia helped determine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election with a margin of less than 12,000 votes. Efforts to challenge the ability of hundreds of thousands—or possibly, with the AI tools being leveraged, even millions—of Georgians to vote may directly affect the results of the 2024 presidential election.

The Months to Come
Businesses and Georgians alike will need to wait to see whether the recommendations of the Legislature will be signed into law by Kemp next month. The impact of those decisions on the state’s health care system, workforce, businesses and all Georgians will be deeply felt in the coming months in unknown ways and no doubt lay the foundation for another heavily debated session in 2025. Meanwhile, only one thing is for certain—all eyes will be on Georgia for the November presidential election.

Allegra Lawrence-Hardy
Allegra Lawrence-Hardy is co-founder of Lawrence & Bundy in Atlanta, working with in-house counsel across the country on labor and employment and political law matters.

Maia Cogen
Maia Cogen is a litigation attorney with Lawrence & Bundy who practices in the areas of labor and employment and political law