Sam Whitehead, Molly Samuel, Johnny Kauffman, and Martha Dalton contributed to this report.
Gov. Brian Kemp had until Monday, 40 days since the close of the 2021 General Assembly session, to decide whether to sign or veto the bills the legislature passed. The most controversial bill of the session, the state’s new election law, was signed within an hour of its passage in March, but the legislature was busy passing other bills this year as well.
Kemp vetoed one bill that would have created a “chief labor officer” within the Department of Labor who would have reported to the state legislature. This was a hot-button issue during the legislative session as a backlog of unemployment claims frustrated jobless Georgians and the lawmakers they appealed to for help.
ATLANTA - The Georgia Supreme Court will resume conducting oral arguments in person beginning June 9, Chief Justice Harold Melton announced Wednesday.
The high court has been holding oral arguments via Zoom since Melton first declared a statewide judicial emergency in March of last year, as the coronavirus pandemic forced a shutdown of live court proceedings.
âAlthough the statewide judicial emergency remains in place, this is yet another step in our court systemâs return to robust court operations,â Melton said.
Public health protocols will be in place for the in-person proceedings. The nine justices, who all have been fully vaccinated, will wear masks throughout the session, as will all other persons in the courtroom, although attorneys arguing before the court may remove their masks at the podium if they so choose.
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Georgia’s court system could face an “avalanche of demands” that would “overwhelm” it, the state s top justice warns, when defendants file for a speedy trial after courts reopen following the yearlong shutdown because of the pandemic.
Harold Melton, chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, made the daunting prediction during the 2021 State of the Judiciary address to the Georgia General Assembly on Tuesday morning.
”We realize the burden of having defendants waiting longer for trial for being in jail,” Melton said. But we need to have a system that determines whether people who have been charged with a crime are guilty or innocent before allowing them to walk free.