ATLANTA — Republican state senators voted Thursday, Feb. 20, to advance a bill that would expose banking institutions to lawsuits if they deny services to customers because of the way they exercised their rights under the first 10 amendments to the ӽ紫ý Constitution.

The measure applies to the purveyors of essential services, including utilities. But Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, the chief sponsor of Senate Bill 57, said it should be called the “Georgia ban on de-banking act” rather than “The Freedom of Speech and Belief Act,” as it is formally titled.

This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.

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