COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A lawsuit that challenges the Cobb County School Board map on the grounds that it is racially discriminatory will move forward.
A federal judge cleared the way for Finn v. Cobb County Board of Elections to continue on Friday. The lawsuit was filed more than a year ago and alleges how the school board and lawmakers used racial demographic information to pack voters of color into Districts 2, 3, and 6. Voting rights groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, ACLU of Georgia, and Lawyer's Committee are among several organizations backing the lawsuit and say the use of racial demographic information diminishes the voting power of Black, Hispanic, and Latinx communities which violates the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The voting rights organizations filed the lawsuit on behalf of individual Cobb County parents and several state and local organizations saying as the area is a rapidly diversifying county, the district maps could hinder voting power over the course of the next decade -- when it would be time to redraw the maps.
Over the past year, the Cobb County Board of Elections tried to dismiss the case claiming it was not the right party to sue. The school district voluntarily intervened as defendants in January, according to a news release, and then tried to get the case dismissed later.
A federal court judge rejected the Board of Elections' motion on Friday. He also partly granted the school district's motion, saying it could not be held liable under the Monell doctrine. This aligns with the school district's motion in which it said that it could not be held liable for a map approved by the state legislature.
However, people backing the lawsuit said that the judge's ruling does not hinder the case as the litigation aims to prevent the future use of the map - and now parents and voting rights organizations will have an opportunity to plead their case.
“A major reason not to name the district initially is because of the concerns identified in the court's order,” Chris Shenton, counsel for the Southern Coalition for Social Justice said in a news release. “When the district intervened in the case despite those concerns, we did not oppose. When they then turned around and asked to be let out, we opposed only to prevent the district's gamesmanship from derailing the case. We are heartened that the court did not allow the district to do so, and plaintiffs look forward to proving what they have alleged all along: the school board map is an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”
11Alive has reached out to the district for comment.
