Federal court hears Georgia's Cobb school district appeal in map lawsuit

ATLANTA — 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.

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.

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