The day after a northwest Georgia senator’s attempt to ignore his banishment from the House led to his arrest, the chamber’s speaker announced he was lifting the ban.
State Sen. Colton Moore, who previously served in the House, was arrested Thursday after he repeatedly tried to enter the House chamber for a joint session with the Senate. The Trenton Republican was charged with “willful obstruction of law enforcement officers,” a misdemeanor.
House Speaker Jon Burns had banned Moore from the chamber last year.
But Burns on Friday said all members of the General Assembly would be welcome at future joint sessions of both chambers. All 236 members of the Legislature are expected to gather in the coming weeks for the annual State of the Judiciary update from Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Boggs.
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Credit: Jason Getz/AJC
Burns banned Moore last year after he insulted deceased former House Speaker David Ralston.
Moore’s comments came 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. Ralston died in 2022.
With Ralston’s family watching from the Senate gallery, Moore stood at the front of the chamber as he referred to the former speaker as “one of the most corrupt Georgians we’ve seen in our lives.” Moore referenced a 2019 investigation from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 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.
Burns said Friday that he talked to Ralston’s family before reversing the ban.
“While the senator’s actions were despicable and hurtful to all who knew, respected and loved former Speaker David Ralston — we know that Speaker Ralston’s first priority was always to serve the people of our great state, and he wouldn’t want that important work to be hindered,” Burns said in a statement.
“For this reason, the Ralston family has expressed to their family here in the House that they desire for our Chamber to resume business as normal — with all members of the General Assembly present — for any future joint sessions with or without the apology they and the House deserve.”
Earlier in the week, Burns told Moore the ban would be lifted if the senator delivered a “sincere apology” to the family and friends of the chamber’s longtime former leader.
Moore refused. And following his arrest, he received support from Lt. Gov. Burt Jones on Friday.
Jones called Thursday’s incident “an embarrassment for the Legislature as a whole.”
“Moore showed a lot of restraint yesterday in his efforts to really do what he felt like was his obligation as an elected official,” said Jones, who presides over the Senate.
“And I respect that. But I will tell you this, my obligation is to the 56 senators here in this room. ... And I can tell you this moving forward, you have my word that this will not happen again under my watch because I will make sure that every senator has a voice in this building,” he said.
Moore meanwhile defended his actions.
“On Monday, we all raised our hand, we swore to uphold the Constitution, but that Constitution is only worth the power that we give it,” Moore said Friday on the Senate floor. “And if we ignore it and what it says, then it’s worthless.”
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