Racial bias alleged in lawsuit challenging Cobb County school board map

Several civil rights groups and concerned Cobb County parents filed a joint lawsuit Thursday in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the Cobb County Board of Education map which was approved by Republican lawmakers earlier this year. The suit alleges that changing the map has disenfranchised voters of color.

The suit accuses the Republican legislation of “intentionally discriminating against communities of color, particularly Black and Latinx voters, by ‘packing’ them into a small number of districts to dilute their voting power.”

The suit was filed against Cobb’s Board of Elections and Elections Director Janine Eveler and asks the court to block upcoming school board elections, force the General Assembly to redraw the map’s boundaries, and compensate the plaintiffs for their legal fees.

According to the court filing, the legal challenge was made on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Marietta-Cobb, the New Georgia Project, the Georgia NAACP and several Cobb parents. They are represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, and the law firm Schulte, Roth & Zabel LLP.