Federal judge rules school board districts illegal in Georgia school system, calls for new map

A federal judge has ruled that school board districts in Georgia’s second-largest school system appear to be unconstitutionally discriminatory and must be quickly redrawn ahead of 2024’s elections.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross on Thursday forbade the Cobb County school district from using a map supported by the current board’s four Republican members, finding in an preliminary injunction that the map is “substantially likely to be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.”

The Cobb County district on Friday asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to step in immediately and set the order aside, saying the district has been unfairly excluded from the litigation. The district warns that if the appeals court doesn’t act quickly, the “plaintiffs’ scheme to use the courts to overthrow the will of Cobb County voters and replace the duly enacted redistricting map with one that advances their own political goals — without opposition — therefore will succeed exactly as plaintiffs envisioned.”