The 2020 election cycle was all but normal. Due to certain health concerns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, Georgia delayed its primary election three months from March to June and summarily mailed absentee ballot request forms to all active, registered voters. From presidential social media postings to a federal lawsuit,
In March 2020, Governor Brian Kemp (R) issued an Executive Order declaring a Public Health State of Emergency due to COVID-19. The Supreme Court of Georgia also issued a Judicial Order declaring a Statewide Judicial Emergency. The Council of Probate Court Judges subsequently characterized the processing of weapons carry licenses
Beginning in March 2020, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp (R) issued a series of Executive Orders addressing the State’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Included in these Orders was a prohibition on large groups of people gathering in a single location. Though an effective means of curtailing the virus’s
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals across the country faced unprecedented volumes of patients seeking treatment related to the respiratory complications of the virus. As a result, states were forced to reassess existing scarce resource allocation guidelines to appropriately accommodate the high demand. This Peach Sheet analyzes the
The Standards for Privacy of Individually Identifiable Health Information (“Privacy Rule”) establish a standard for the use and protection of individuals’ health information and apply to certain covered entities or their business associates. Covered entities may only disclose an individual’s protected health information in limited situations. Covered entities or
The Executive Order expanded immunity from liability for volunteer health care workers as emergency management workers performing emergency management activities. The Order was not limited to only COVID-19-related activities. When the legislature reconvened, legislators passed the Georgia COVID-19 Pandemic Business Safety Act, which provided liability limitation to businesses against tort
Governor Brian Kemp (R) issued Executive Orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that required businesses to close in an effort to limit the spread of the virus. Business owners often challenged those forced business closures as unconstitutional or as exceeding the State’s police power, and those challenges were
The doctrine of preemption expresses the idea that “a higher authority of law will displace a lower authority of law when the two authorities come into conflict.” Preemption exists on both the federal and state level. According to the Georgia Constitution, local laws are permissible if they do not conflict
The Act repeals certain provisions regarding the sentencing of defendants for crimes involving bias or prejudice and provides both criteria for punishment for those crimes and required reporting of those crimes.
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The Executive Order primarily functions to enumerate the Governor’s emergency powers during a Public Health State of Emergency. The Executive Order allows for the Governor to assist health and emergency management officials by deploying available resources for the mitigation and treatment of COVID-19 within Georgia.
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The Administrative Order for Public Health Control Measures and its subsequent amendments outlined the Isolation and Quarantine Protocols for individuals who either tested positive for COVID-19 or were suspected of COVID-19 infection based on symptoms or prolonged exposure to the virus.
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The Supreme Court of Georgia issued an Order declaring a Statewide Judicial Emergency to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 throughout the State of Georgia. The courts remained open to address essential functions, as defined within the Order. Additionally, all deadlines and other filing requirements were extended or tolled. Throughout the
The Supreme Court of Georgia issued the Judicial Order to postpone administration of the July 2020 Georgia bar examination to September 2020. The Order provided for the provisional admission to the practice of law of recent law school graduates and lawyers new to Georgia—those most affected by the postponement.
The President’s November 2018 designation of Matthew Whitaker to be the Acting Attorney General was unprecedented and calls into question several legal issues. Though many are based on questions of constitutionality, there is a strong and novel argument that the statute used by the President to designate Mr. Whitaker,
Developments in the fields of law and journalism during the last two decades have led to greater awareness of the need for trauma-informed practices vis-à-vis survivors of violence, and correspondingly, the emergence of pedagogical resources for legal advocates and journalists. Due to traditional disciplinary silos, extant resources on trauma-informed practices
Since the 2000 passage of both the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and the U.N.’s Palermo Protocols, human trafficking has gained a notable global presence as a human rights concern. Community organizations, nonprofits, scholars, policymakers, and service providers have developed programs to identify and address human trafficking. Despite
