The lawsuit over the Cobb County School Board electoral district map made its way to federal appeals court Tuesday, after the school district appealed a lower court’s ruling that the map likely violated federal law.
In 2022, voting rights groups filed suit against the Cobb Board of Elections, alleging the school board and state lawmakers drew a map that unlawfully discriminates against communities of color by “packing” them into a small number of districts to dilute minority voting power.
Credit: Pho
Credit: Pho
The school district joined the case but was dismissed of responsibility.
The Board of Elections opted to settle with the plaintiffs, citing its position as a “neutral administrator of elections.” A judge then ordered state lawmakers to draw a new map, but that order was suspended on appeal. Lawmakers went ahead and passed a new map anyway — one very similar to the disputed map — to be used in the 2024 election.
Because the school district is not a party in the case, federal judges in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals grilled attorney Philip Savrin in Tuesday’s hearing on why they should allow an appeal in the first place.
“No, the threshold question is whether you have any standing to be here as a non-party,” Judge Ed Carnes said.
Savrin argued the district should not have been removed and should be allowed to appeal because of a “personal stake in the outcome” that “affects the lives of hundreds of thousands constituents in Cobb County.”
Savrin also said the judge made a mistake by ordering the map to be redrawn because the Board of Elections did not defend itself and instead settled.
“There was no one to defend the map that had been enacted by the Legislature that affects my client,” Savrin said.
The plaintiff’s attorney Sofia Fernandez Gold said she suspected the school district “found it useful to make that schedule more difficult by filing motion after motion” along with other legal maneuvers to delay the case.
“The school district itself chose to remove itself from the litigation and then chose not to file a renewed motion for intervention,” Gold said. “Those were strategic choices by a sophisticated party, and this court need not undo them.”
Judge Carnes said he, too, was “curious about motivations.”
“So they wanted to be denied so that they could appeal so they could drag out the proceedings?” Carnes asked.
In the first year of the case, the school district spent over $1 million in legal fees to defend the map, despite not being named in the lawsuit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
The school board is the last governing body in Cobb County to be led by a Republican majority, further heightening the political contention over the district map. This year, three seats currently held by Republicans on the school board are up for reelection.
David Banks will not seek reelection for his Post 5 seat, leaving Republican John H. Cristadoro and Democrat Laura Judge to face off. Republican incumbent Randy Scamihorn is being challenged by Democrat Vickie H. W. Benson for Post 1. And in Post 7, Republican incumbent Brad Wheeler is challenged by Democrat Andrew Cole. Leroy “Tre’” Hutchins, the Democrat incumbent who represents Post 3, is not facing an opponent.
Credit: Photo provided
Credit: Photo provided
The conflict over the map has turned nasty at times: the school district sparked outrage after it sent a mass email to parents deriding “leftist political activists” and condemning the elections board for its decision to settle the case.
At one point in 2023, every electoral map in Cobb County — from the local county commission to U.S. Congressional districts — was facing litigation in court, spotlighting political partisanship as the metro Atlanta suburb shifted politically from a Republican stronghold to majority-Democratic county.
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