www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-05-09 07:00:00
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed a bill prohibiting state funds from being used for transgender care for inmates. Kemp emphasized that taxpayer dollars should not fund such procedures. The state is facing lawsuits from inmates seeking transgender treatments, including one from Ronnie Fuller, requesting a mastectomy. The U.S. Department of Justice, which had previously supported transgender inmate cases, withdrew its statement of interest. Kemp also signed five other bills, including one to upgrade Georgia’s 911 system with a \$5 million budget allocation, aiming to enhance response times and improve public safety across the state.
(The Center Square) – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Thursday that prohibits state funds from being used for inmate transgender care.
“Taxpayer dollars should not be used for procedures like this,” Kemp said before signing the bill at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.
The state is facing two lawsuits from inmates over transgender treatments. Ronnie Fuller, housed in Pulaski State Prison, is asking the state to pay for a mastectomy. Fuller is a female who identified as a male, according to a document filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest in in the case of Jane Doe vs. the Georgia Department of Corrections but withdrew its statement last month. The department filed a statement in the Fuller case, according to a release.
“The prior administration’s arguments in transgender inmate cases were based on junk science,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. “There has never been an Eighth Amendment right for inmates to demand elective and experimental surgeries. States’ limited resources need not be wasted to provide these dubious surgeries to inmates.”
Kemp signed five other bills, including one that would improve the state’s 911 communication centers by transitioning it to Next-Generation 911. The amended fiscal year 2025 budget included $5 million for the project.
“Once complete, this system will improve both response times and the impact of our first responders,” Kemp said. “And that means safer, healthier communities literally in every corner of our state.”
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The article primarily reports on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signing a bill that restricts state funds for transgender inmate care, including quotes from Kemp and a Justice Department official critical of prior transgender inmate care policies. The language and framing focus on policy decisions and legal challenges but use terms like “junk science” and “elective and experimental surgeries,” which reflect a critical stance toward transgender healthcare policies. The article includes perspectives aligning with conservative viewpoints on transgender issues, suggesting a center-right bias rather than a completely neutral report. However, it does not explicitly advocate for a broader ideological agenda, mainly covering the event and associated reactions.
SUMMARY: Senate Republicans passed a tax and spending bill including the largest Medicaid cuts since its 1960s inception, aiming to reduce spending by $1 trillion over ten years. The Congressional Budget Office projects nearly 12 million lower-income Americans will lose coverage by 2034, mainly targeting those who gained insurance via Medicaid expansion. Key measures include strict work requirements for beneficiaries and restrictions on state provider taxes, which could destabilize rural hospitals. Critics warn this will increase uninsured rates, medical debt, and healthcare access issues, while GOP leaders claim no eligible individuals will lose benefits. The bill awaits House approval amid concerns over its impact on the social safety net.
SUMMARY: Tuesday in the CSRA brings heat, humidity, and scattered to numerous thunderstorms, especially north and west of Augusta, with possible damaging winds of 40–60 mph and heavy rain causing localized flash flooding. A cold front from the west fuels this moisture and storm activity. Storm chances shift south Wednesday, with temperatures in the upper 80s to near 90, maintaining muggy summer conditions. By Thursday, drier air filters in, though some afternoon showers remain possible. For July 4th and the weekend, drier, sunnier, and seasonably hot weather is expected. A low-pressure system near the Florida Panhandle may develop, but impacts are uncertain and likely minimal.
A federal judge has temporarily blocked Georgia’s Senate Bill 351, which required social media companies to verify minors’ ages and obtain parental consent before account creation. The ruling, favoring social media coalition NetChoice, cited First Amendment concerns, noting the law’s exemptions created content-based speech restrictions likely unconstitutional. Judge Amy Totenberg highlighted burdens on free speech and privacy risks. However, the law’s sponsor, Sen. Jason Anavitarte, pointed to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling supporting similar age verification laws, predicting SB 351 will eventually be enforced. Georgia’s Attorney General plans to appeal, emphasizing parental rights and child protection online.
Georgia kids can continue liking, commenting and subscribing without notifying their parents this summer after a federal judge put a temporary hold on the state’s new social media age verification law while the case moves forward – but the bill’s author says a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling bodes well for the ban.
Senate Bill 351, which was set to go into effect July 1, would require social media companies to get a parent’s permission before they allowed a minor to create an account. All Georgians would also have to verify their age before accessing websites with material deemed harmful to minors.
On Thursday, Judge Amy Totenberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled in favor of NetChoice, a coalition of social media companies, who argued that the law as written would likely violate free speech protections.
“The Court does not doubt the dangers posed by young people’s overwhelming exposure to social media,” Totenberg wrote. “But, in its effort to aid parents, the Act’s solution creates serious obstacles for all Georgians, including teenagers, to engage in protected speech activities and would highly likely be unconstitutional.”
Totenberg said the law would curb the speech rights of young people, impose a burden on all Georgians to participate in online speech, potentially put Georgians’ private data at risk and step into parents’ decisions on how to raise their children.
But Totenberg said the law’s biggest downfall comes in its long list of exemptions, which include news, sports, and entertainment sites, interactive gaming platforms, streaming services and more.
“For example, SB 351 would presumably apply to the Georgia Bulldogs Reddit forum, which features user-generated content. But it would exempt Barstool Sports, which features provider-generated content. It would apply to news coverage posted by users on X, but not news coverage posted by The New York Times to its own liveblog.”
Totenberg found that amounts to a content-based restriction on speech, which triggers a higher level of scrutiny – which she said Georgia’s law doesn’t meet.
“Because of the enormous burdens imposed on the First Amendment rights of children, adults, and social media platforms — along with the significant tailoring issues inherent in the law — even the State’s serious interest here cannot justify SB 351 under the First Amendment’s rigorous standards,” she said.
NetChoice celebrated the win in a statement.
“This is a major victory for free speech, constitutional clarity and the rights of all Georgians to engage in public discourse without intrusive government overreach,” said Chris Marchese, NetChoice director of litigation. “We are grateful the court recognized what we’ve long argued: SB 351 isn’t just poorly crafted — it’s profoundly unconstitutional.”
But the bill’s author, state Sen. Jason Anavitarte, a Dallas Republican who is now the Senate majority leader, said their victory is likely to be short-lived.
In a statement, Anavitarte pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that backed a Texas state law requiring age verification for pornographic websites.
“One day after liberal Obama Appointee, US District Court Judge, Amy Totenberg, issued an injunction preventing Georgia’s age verification law from taking effect, The Supreme Court found that laws like SB 351 ‘have only an incidental effect on protected speech and that The First Amendment leaves undisturbed States’ traditional power to prevent minors from accessing speech that is obscene from their perspective….Requiring proof of age is an ordinary and appropriate means of enforcing an age-based limit on obscenity to minors,’” Anavitarte said.
“Based on Friday’s ruling at The Supreme Court, Judge Totenberg should be left with no choice but to allow SB 351 to go into effect,” he added. “I am immensely grateful for Justice Clarence Thomas’ well written opinion and remain optimistic that SB 351 will go into effect in its entirety.”
Attorney General Chris Carr’s said Carr intends to appeal the ruling.
“We will continue to defend commonsense measures that empower parents and protect our children online,” said Carr spokesperson Kara Murray.
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Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jill Nolin for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
This article provides a balanced report on Georgia’s social media age verification law by presenting both the legal challenge emphasizing free speech concerns and the bill author’s perspective highlighting parental control and child protection. It quotes judicial reasoning against the law’s constitutionality alongside statements from the Republican bill sponsor and the Attorney General, showing arguments on both sides without overt editorializing. The tone and framing remain largely factual and neutral, aiming to inform readers about the ongoing legal and political debate without taking a partisan stance.
