Hi, this is Annie in Christchurch, New Zealand. I'm getting ready for my first day as a volunteer for the FIFA Women's World Cup.

This podcast was recorded at 109 pm Eastern time on July 5th, 2023.

Things may have changed, but I'm still supporting these incredible athletes.

Okay, enjoy the show.

That's awesome. I go USA, by the way, the women should do pretty well.

Sounds way more fun than politics. That's awesome.

Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Sarah McCammon. I cover politics.

I'm Odette Yusef. I cover domestic extremism.

And I'm Dominican Montenoro, Senior Political Editor and Correspondent.

Police in Georgia are building a large new training facility that has drawn major protests.

The activists who have labeled the training complex COPS City are being arrested and accused of domestic terrorism.

But even after months, none of them have been formally charged.

And Odette, you spent some time in Atlanta recently. Let's start with that. What drew your attention to this story, first of all?

So it's the domestic terrorism statute, Sarah, and how it's being used here.

So since December, law enforcement officials in Georgia have arrested 42 people,

and the arrest warrants cite a domestic terrorism statute.

Now, they haven't been formally indicted yet, but it's interesting because there is no federal domestic terrorism law.

When you think about federal terrorism cases that are charges that have happened,

those really are only in relation to foreign terrorist organizations. You know, think of Al Qaeda or ISIS.

And that's because things get a lot trickier when you're talking about monitoring American citizens,

or charging American citizens who may have committed crimes motivated by some sort of underlying ideological or political motivation.

So what we're seeing instead is we're seeing a lot of states are putting laws in their books that relate to terrorism, try to get at that issue.

...