The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the city of Atlanta a temporary delay in the July 27 injunction by a federal judge that allowed non-Atlanta residents to collect signatures and extended the collection timeframe by an additional 60 days for the petition drive against the planned public safety training center.
The order was issued late Friday afternoon and caused a lot of confusion about what exactly it means.
“We are disappointed that the 11th Circuit has stayed the injunction in this case, particularly given the confusion this ruling creates and lack of clarity provided by the Court,” Mary Hooks, tactical lead for the Cop City Vote Coalition, said in a statement.
The Cop City Vote Coalition is leading the effort to collect more than 50,000 signatures in an attempt to force a ballot referendum over whether the training facility will be constructed in the South River Forest.
Kurt Kastorf, counsel for the referendum effort, said they hope the city or the court is able to provide some clarity about what the decision means.
“We still intend to pursue the petition,” Kastorf said.
Petition organizers argue that the circuit’s order does not mean the petition has been invalidated or disqualified, only that Judge Mark Cohen’s order has been delayed pending a full decision.
“To say otherwise is simply a lie. We remain fully committed to putting Cop City on the ballot to let the people’s voices be heard, and are assessing what this means for our ongoing signature collection and canvass efforts. In this heightened time of attacks on democratic processes, this ruling leaves the order up for interpretation and now Atlantans will pay the price in confusion, anger, and disillusionment,” Hooks said in a statement.
Cohen’s ruling restarted the 60-day timeline in which opponents of the facility had to collect 58,231 signatures. After the district court had already denied the city’s request for a delay, the city then filed an appeal with the Eleventh Circuit asking for a stay on Cohen’s order, which was granted on Friday.
“The City is pleased that the 11th Circuit has stepped in and granted the City’s motion to stay the trial court’s injunction. Given the holiday weekend, the City will have further comment early next week,” a spokesperson for the Mayor’s Office said.
In the order, the court ordered an expedited briefing and asked opponents of the training center to file a response brief by Sept. 13, with the city’s reply due by October 4.
Organizers decided to continue collecting signatures for a referendum petition, using the extended timeline, instead of turning them in at the original deadline of Aug. 21 after the city was unclear about the process it would use to verify the signatures. The city would later announced the process it intends to use to verify the collected signatures, once they are submitted.
As of Sept. 1, the municipal clerk announced they had not received any petition.
