Subcommittee backs amended SB 443 tightening penalties for roadway blockades; ACLU warns of First Amendment risks

A Georgia Senate subcommittee voted to recommend Senate Bill 443 to the full judiciary committee after adopting a sponsor-sought amendment that narrows the bill's enhanced-penalty language.

Senator Summers, the bill's sponsor, told the subcommittee the measure is meant to stop demonstrations that block highways and impede emergency vehicles, saying protesters may "protest all you want" but "you can't block any roads because in your blocking ambulances, fire trucks, mothers picking up their children" (presenter: Senator Summers). The original draft raised the offense to a "high and aggravated misdemeanor" and referenced fines as high as $5,000 and potential jail exposure; Summers said the classification was intended to give law enforcement ‘‘teeth’’ to respond to dangerous blockades.

The ACLU of Georgia opposed the bill in testimony. "I'm here testifying in opposition to Senate Bill 4 43 because it expands criminal liability for First Amendment protected protest activity," Sarah Hunt Blackwell, Senior Policy Counsel at the ACLU of Georgia, said, arguing spontaneous demonstrations are protected speech and the bill's penalty enhancements—mandatory high-and-aggravated designations and suggested minimum punishments—could criminalize constitutionally protected conduct.

Committee members pressed both sponsors and counsel on statutory overlap and the meaning of "bodily injury" and "property damage" as written. Counsel and defense advocates pointed out existing Georgia statutes—battery, aggravated assault, and criminal damage to property—already reach violent or destructive conduct arising out of protests. Several defense-focused witnesses urged keeping the heightened misdemeanor classification but removing automatic felony-style mandatory minimum language.

Senator Bearden offered an amendment that inserted a period after "high and aggravated misdemeanor" and struck the subsequent mandatory felony-style language; the change preserves the deterrent for blocking roadways but leaves other criminal charges available to prosecutors when separate injuries or property damage occur. The amendment was adopted by the subcommittee, and members then voted to recommend the bill to the full judiciary committee as amended. The chair recorded one member as opposed to the final recommendation.

Next steps: The subcommittee's recommendation sends SB 443, as amended, to the full judiciary committee where members indicated they will consider further drafting changes, including whether to adopt explicit thresholds (e.g., "serious bodily injury") or numerical property-damage values.