A far-right northwest Georgia senator was arrested Thursday after he refused to abide by a ban on entering the House chamber made by the speaker last year.
State Sen. Colton Moore, a Trenton Republican and former House member, scuffled with staff and Georgia State Patrol officers before officers handcuffed him and escorted him to a police car that was bound for Fulton County Jail. Moore was charged with “willful obstruction of law enforcement officers,” a misdemeanor.
House Speaker Jon Burns warned Moore Tuesday that the ban put in place last year is still intact after his “vile, disparaging and false comments” about the late House Speaker David Ralston until Moore delivers a “sincere apology” to the family and friends of the chamber’s longtime former leader, who died in 2022.
“This is a silly mess,” Moore said Thursday as staffers blocked his entry to the House and pushed him back from the door. “I represent 200,000 people in northwest Georgia who duly elected me to be here today, and you’re hindering that.”
Ahead of the State of the State, more than a dozen state patrol officers lined the hallway outside the House chamber, which was partitioned off by black curtains that kept the public from witnessing the scuffle.
Moore was attempting to attend a joint session of the House and Senate to hear Gov. Brian Kemp deliver his annual State of the State speech.
House staffers including doorkeeper Cory Mulkey and Keith Williams, general counsel for the speaker, blocked Moore from entering and pushed him back as he tried to go around them. At one particularly tense moment before officers placed Moore in handcuffs, Williams pushed Moore the floor.
The scuffle unfolded under a portrait of Ralston, for whom Williams also worked.
Moore on Wednesday called Burns a “tyrant” compared his leadership to the “tyranny” of James Oglethorpe, an English military official and politician who is recognized as the founder of Georgia.
Officers led Moore past a bust of Oglethorpe — and Kemp, who was awaiting entry to the House — as they took the senator outside.
Ahead of his attempts to enter the House chamber, Moore told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he felt like he was boxer Manny Pacquiao preparing to walk into the ring.
“I have a constitutional obligation to be there, and if they’re going to arrest me, that’s their problem,” Moore told the AJC. “I told the speaker yesterday in a meeting, I said, ‘Mr. Speaker, I completely respect your authority in telling me that I can’t be a part of a House session. I’ve never tried to come over in a House session. But this is a joint session of the Senate and the House, and your opinion may not override the resolution passed unanimously by both chambers.”
Republican leaders quickly expressed support for Moore.
“I am deeply disappointed that Senator Moore was denied admission and shocked that he was apparently subjected to arrest for attempting to attend the joint session today, after being physically manhandled,” said Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon. “It was not only legally appropriate to admit him to today’s proceedings — it was simply the right thing to do.”
Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who also serves as president of the state Senate, also said Moore should have been granted entry to the chamber.
“All elected 56 senators and 180 representatives deserve the opportunity to fulfill their responsibility to attend joint sessions of the General Assembly,” Jones said. “There is real work to be done this session and the focus should be on delivering for the people of Georgia instead of personal grievances and egos.”
The conflict between Moore and Burns stems from comments Moore made last year as the Senate considered a resolution urging the University of North Georgia to name a new academic facility on its Blue Ridge campus after Ralston, a Blue Ridge native.
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com
With Ralston’s family watching from the Senate gallery, Moore referred to the former speaker as “one of the most corrupt Georgians we’ve seen in our lives.” Burns swiftly announced that Moore would indefinitely be banned from the House. That ban remains in effect, Burns said.
Moore has also faced backlash in his own chamber. He was exiled from the Senate Republican caucus in 2023 after berating fellow Republicans for refusing his call for a special session to punish Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Tension between Moore and Ralston began in 2019 when Moore was a member of the House. That year, the AJC published an investigation that found Ralston, who was a defense attorney, appeared to use a policy called “legislative leave” to perpetually keep his clients’ cases off the docket, potentially thwarting justice and putting the public at risk.
Legislative leave is a more than 120-year-old policy that requires judges and prosecutors to defer to the legislative schedule of any practicing attorney who serves in the General Assembly.
Moore was one of a handful of Republican lawmakers who called on Ralston to step down as speaker after the AJC investigation. That put Moore in the crosshairs of the powerful speaker, who targeted him for electoral defeat.
Moore did not seek a second House term and ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2020. Two years later, he won the seat. He easily defeated a Republican challenger last year who centered her campaign on his history of provocative accusations.
Moore is the third lawmaker to be arrested in the Capitol in recent years. In 2021, Georgia state troopers arrested state Rep. Park Cannon as she knocked on Gov. Brian Kemp’s door, interrupting his livestreamed announcement as signed an elections bill into law.
During a 2018 special legislative session, then-state Sen. Nikema Williams was arrested during a protest urging officials to tally all absentee and provisional ballots before declaring Republican Brian Kemp the winner in a close election for governor.
The charges were dropped in both cases.
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