Georgia Today: Peachtree Road Race; Macon firefighter shortage; SCOTUS ends Chevron Deference

Peter Biello: Welcome to the Georgia Today podcast from GPB News. Today is Wednesday, July 3. I'm Peter Biello. On today's episode, runners gather in Atlanta for tomorrow's Peachtree Road Race. Macon looks to boost its firefighting staff, and we'll look at how the Supreme Court may have opened the door to more partisanship in federal regulations. These stories and more are coming up on this edition of Georgia Today.

Story 1:

Peter Biello: The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a Black man on Georgia's death row, who says his trial was unfair because the prosecutor improperly excluded Black jurors. A jury found Warren King guilty of murder and other crimes, and sentenced him to die for the 1994 shooting death of convenience store clerk Karen Crosby in Southeast Georgia's Appling County. The prosecutor used strikes to eliminate 87% of eligible Black jurors, but only 8% of eligible white jurors, all women. The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday didn't give a reason for declining to take the case. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented, with Jackson writing that the state courts ignored, quote, "highly salient facts" about the jury strikes.

Story 2:

Peter Biello: A Southwest Georgia lawyer jailed for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, has been released. The release order Monday for Sumter County Attorney William Calhoun came days after the U.S. Supreme Court limited, which defendants accused in the riot can be charged by federal prosecutors with obstructing Congress. Calhoun was one of Georgia's most high-profile Jan. 6 defendants.

Caption

Firefighters

Story 3:

Peter Biello: Firefighters do more than just put out fires. They also respond to 911 calls when police can't. But nationwide, there aren't enough firefighters to meet the high demand. GPB's Sofi Gratas has more on Macon's efforts to address the shortage.

Chief Arthur Parker: Congratulations. Let's give them another hand.

Sofi Gratas: After a graduation ceremony in West Macon, 15 new firefighters were promptly given their assignments to start work in the coming weeks.

Chief Arthur Parker: Every class is special to me.

Sofi Gratas: Training Chief Arthur Parker says the Macon Bibb Fire Department graduates around three classes of recruits each year, ever since the county shortened training by removing the EMT requirements.

Chief Arthur Parker: Because we wanted to turn over more classes and go ahead and get firefighters on trucks faster, it just speeds up the process. Three months, let them get on the line, start getting some experience.

Sofi Gratas: Last year, Bibb County took another step to grow recruitment, launching a career training program that fast-tracks high schoolers to firefighter certification. The first group graduated in May and start work this year. For GPB News, I'm Sofi Gratas in Macon.

Story 4:

Peter Biello: Georgia U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff is asking the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI to make sure they're taking steps to protect election workers. In a letter dated yesterday, Ossoff requested the agencies spell out how they receive and respond to threats. He also wanted to know the steps they're taking to make sure staffing needs are met, and how they plan to enforce laws designed to protect election workers. He cited a survey of election officials earlier this year in which more than a third of respondents reported harassment or abuse in their jobs.

Story 5:

Peter Biello: Georgia residents with ties to Jamaica are closely watching as Hurricane Beryl roars through the island nation. The Category 4 storm so far has killed at least six people and caused widespread damage in the Caribbean. Andre Neal runs a Jamaican restaurant in Savannah and says he can't get in touch with much of his family.

Andre Neal: There's a population of Jamaicans. Everybody is worried. It's hard to function knowing that you can't get your immediate family members, your mom and dad, you know.

Peter Biello: He says the last strong storm to hit Jamaica was 1988's Hurricane Gilbert, which he called traumatic for islanders.

Story 6:

Peter Biello: The Supreme Court upended last week a 40-year-old decision that made it easier for the federal government to regulate things like the environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections. The case, known simply as Chevron, required courts to defer to reasonable agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, and it helped knowledgeable experts prevail over ideological judges in court. But how will federal agencies now proceed without Chevron? For this, we turn to Kent Barnett, a faculty member of the University of Georgia School of Law and incoming dean at the Moritz College of Law at the Ohio State University, whose work was cited in Justice Elena Kagan's dissent. Kent Barnett, welcome to the program.

Kent Barnett: Thank you so much for having me.

Peter Biello: So you found in your research that leaving decisions up to federal agencies and not judges actually reduces partisan influence. Can you explain how?

Kent Barnett: Sure. I think it largely revolves around how the Chevron deference doctrine had judges think about interpretive problems. So the way Chevron worked is you moved in two steps. First, you would ask whether or not the question at issue in the statute had a clear resolution or a clear answer from Congress. If it did not, then you turn to Step 2, and you asked whether the agency's resolution of that gap in the statute or an ambiguous phrase in the statute was resolved reasonably. By moving to that second step, where you ask whether the agency has resolved an ambiguity reasonably, it provides some reason for the judges to defer to what the agency determines, taking it out of the — the judge's view of what the statute should be best read as. And by doing that, it leads judges of different ideological stripes to coalesce around the same answer.

Peter Biello: And without that step in the process, now, with Chevron gone, what will this mean for federal agencies who might need to make a decision but are unsure if they can because of the the the way the law is structured now, they're not sure they can step into the ambiguity like they used to.

Kent Barnett: I think it's going to open them up to less certainty that a court is going to defer to their resolution of the ambiguity, based on the agency's experience and expertise. In other words, it may matter much more who the particular judge is in deciding the case, because now the judge, although the judge can continue to look at the agency's views and consider things like the thoroughness of the agency's interpretation or the — the nature of the analysis, the judge at the end of the day will get to choose what the judge thinks is the best reading and what the best reading is may have ideological or other forms of political influence in how the judge resolves that matter.

Peter Biello: Will this also force lawmakers to go back and write really specific laws to empower the federal agencies to do what they previously were able to do a little easier?

Kent Barnett: That has been one of the arguments: that essentially, I think, framed in its best form, is that you need to stop treating Congress like a child that's not able to write good, specific legislation. And by having less deference to the agencies and not excusing the holes or the ambiguities in the statute, you're requiring Congress to take more responsibility. I guess this is really just going to be an empirical question that we will have to determine in the coming years when Chevron is no longer filling the void. Personally, I'm a bit skeptical that Congress is — is going to choose to write with specificity the — the matters that agencies now fill by using regulations or other forms of agency action. And that's because it requires Congress to have quite a bit of expertise and quite a bit of time — not to forget, quite a bit of agreement across the aisle in order to write very specific legislation to govern problems that often are changing and that often come about in a fairly rapid succession as businesses face new problems and oftentimes become more creative.

Peter Biello: So what will the average American notice now that Chevron is no longer precedent? Will there be changes in the environment or something else that the federal government regulates that people will notice?

Kent Barnett: I don't know that people will notice in their day to day lives, in their particular interactions with the government, that matters have changed. Where I think they will see a difference will be in the overall amount of regulation that they see from the federal government, specifically in areas that concern the environment and climate change. Taken as a whole, Chevron, the major question doctrine, and the requirements for responding to comments in rulemaking, are all going to make federal regulation much more onerous and less likely to survive judicial challenge.

Peter Biello: Well, Kent Barnett, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us. I really appreciate it.

Kent Barnett: Thank you so much.

Caption

Runner

Credit: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File

Story 7:

Peter Biello: Runners from across the country and right here in Georgia are preparing for the 55th annual Peachtree Road Race tomorrow in Atlanta. The 10K race draws massive crowds. Registration is capped at 60,000. Runners of all levels gather on Mondays to train with the Atlanta Run Club, an amateur community running group. GPB's Amanda Andrews went out to learn more about how they train.

Camilo Trancoso: This is our city and we run the city. Atlanta Run Club, baby. That's what we do.

Brittany Smith: Yeah, we have a motto: "If you're not running, you're cheering."

Camilo Trancoso I'm ready and excited to run the 55th Peachtree Road Race this year with the Atlanta Run Club family, and I'm hyped up about the cheer station. My name is Camilo Trancoso, so I've been with Atlanta Run Club for two years. Once we get done running, we go back to the cheer station. We have our full blown out DJ. We have — just a big old party, and we just cheer on the rest of the runners and I'll bring the vibes.

Brittany Smith: Hi, my name is Brittany Smith. I've been running for two years. So this will be my third time during the Peachtree Road Race. My first time, I did not train for it whatsoever, so that was a nightmare. The second time I was a little injured. But this year, I'm ready for it. I've been training.

Speaker: If you want to volunteer to be a pacer, go to the table. Get a pace card.

Anna Ward: Making it to the end. I don't care how fast I am, I actually don't have a goal time. I just wanna make sure I can get from point A to point B. My name is Anna Ward. I've been with the run club for a year and a half now — mmm, MAYBE a year and a half. I'm preparing for my very first Peachtree. I'm pretty excited. My mom was a marathon runner, and I was like, well, I might as well make my first 10K as one of the biggest 10Ks, which is Peachtree, and then just doing a 10-miler and doing a half marathon next year.

Kevin Doan: I'm feeling sweaty. I'm feeling tired. But overall just feeling — feeling really excited. Hi, my name is Kevin Doan. I'm a 29-year-old guy from Florida, but I've been running since about 2019. Every year, Peachtree Road Race is pretty hot, but the vibes are always hot.

Camilo Trancoso: On the day of, it's pretty much a celebration of all the hard work you put in throughout the year.

Brittany Smith: So I'm looking forward to seeing the city come out and support all the runners. And then we get the fun shirt at the end to see what that design's going to be. And then, you know, a fresh peach at the finish line.

Speaker: Ready? Y'all are true MVP's!

Peter Biello: You just heard from members of the Atlanta Run Club preparing to run the 55th annual Peachtree Road Race. The race starts at 7 a.m. tomorrow.

Story 8:

Peter Biello: In sports, the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants face off again tonight. The Giants beat the Braves yesterday, 5 to 3. Austin Riley and Shaun Murphy hit back-to-back homers in the second inning last night, but the Giants answered with a pair of homers of their own in the fifth. A defensive error allowed the Giants to take the lead, which they kept. Riley says the Braves couldn't get a late game rally started.

Austin Riley: I mean, it's just I feel like we're — each night it seems like, you know, when we're in this situation, we're just we're right there. And just, you know, can't, can't get that big hit to build that momentum and keep going. And but you know, we just got to continue to to push forward and work every day.

Peter Biello: Relief pitcher Dylan Lee took the loss for Atlanta last night. Chris Sale is hoping for a better outcome as he takes the mound tonight. And Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray has been named a 2024 WNBA All-Star for the second time in her career. The league late yesterday announced the roster for the All-Star game that will take place on July 20 in Phoenix. This season, Gray is leading Atlanta with 15.6 points per game while shooting 40% from the 3-point line.

Peter Biello: We do appreciate you listening to Georgia Today. Thanks so much for tuning in. We're going to take the day off tomorrow for the Fourth of July, but we will be back on Friday. And you can always find the latest news at GPB.org. Best thing to do, of course, is to subscribe to this podcast. That way you won't have to remember to look for us on Friday. We'll pop up automatically in your podcast feed. If you've got feedback or a story suggestion, we would love to hear from you. The best way to reach us is by email. Email GeorgiaToday@GPB.org. We really do read those emails. I'm Peter Biello. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you on Friday.

---

For more on these stories and more, go to GPB.org/news