ATLANTA (CN) — Residents of Dekalb County, Georgia, where the nation's largest public safety training center is set to be built, can join an effort to place the $90 million facility's controversial construction on the ballot this fall, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The order temporarily blocks Atlanta from enforcing its requirement that only city residents can collect signatures for a referendum petition — like the one calling for a vote to repeal a city ordinance that allows Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to lease 381 acres of land to the Atlanta Police Foundation to build the facility. The lease agreement is expected to cost the city's taxpayers $36 million.
Mayor Dickens and the foundation, which is backed by an array of corporate donors — its board of directors includes leaders from Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot and Equifax — say the $90 million facility is needed to replace inadequate training facilities and to retain new police officers and first responders.
But opponents, who range from local residents to activists from around the country and even internationally, say they want to preserve what is one of the urban area's largest remaining green spaces. They also fear the massive facility they have termed "Cop City" will perpetuate greater militarization of the police nationally and exacerbate the over-policing of poor and majority-Black communities.
Dekalb County residents who say they live within four miles of the planned facility sued both Atlanta and the state of Georgia earlier this month, saying their First Amendment rights were being violated by not being allowed to participate in the referendum efforts.
U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen found that the residents-only rule "imposes a severe burden on core political speech" and that Atlanta had failed “to present any argument that the requirement is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling government interest.”
Atlanta asked the court to dismiss the resident's request, saying its requirement was reasonable and did not impose any severe burden on the would-be petitioners. The city argued the claims failed because “a government unit may legitimately restrict the right to participate in its political process to those who reside within its borders.”
But in Thursday's order, Cohen wrote that “the city has offered no specifics as to why permitting nonresident plaintiffs to gather signatures on a petition that must be signed by residents of the city will cause any disruption to the political process.”
Citing precedent at the circuit level, the Barack Obama-appointed judge agreed the dispute requires a strict scrutiny read.
"Although the Eleventh Circuit has not opined as to whether a requirement that petition circulators or signature gatherers be residents of the state or county in which the petition is to be circulated should be evaluated under strict scrutiny, a number of other circuits agree that such a requirement is a severe burden on First Amendment rights and subject to a strict scrutiny analysis," Cohen wrote.
The ruling requires Atlanta's municipal clerk's office to issue new official copies of the referendum petition without the resident requirement. Once those are issued, the 60-day timeline in which organizers have to collect at least 70,330 signatures will restart. Signatures that have already been properly collected will remain valid.
Atlanta's municipal clerk's office last month approved the petition for the referendum, brought by the Vote To Stop Cop City Coalition. Organizers with the group said Tuesday that they have already collected more than 30,000 signatures since receiving the June 21 greenlight.
The Dekalb County resident plaintiffs celebrated Thursday's ruling.
“Today, a very clear message was sent to Mayor Andre Dickens and all opposing direct democracy that their attempts to suppress free speech are not welcome in Georgia,” Keyanna Jones, one of the plaintiffs in the suit against the city, said in a statement.
Another one of the plaintiffs, Amelia Weltner, said she lives on the city line and that not being able to fully participate in the referendum effort has been very frustrating.
"I’m thrilled to get out there and collect as many signatures as I can for this referendum,” Weltner said.
Lisa Baker, a third plaintiff, suggested the ruling will facilitate better communication.
“Since day one, the residency restriction has limited my ability to go out and talk with my neighbors,” Baker said. “With this ban lifted, we are ready to win.”
Once the required amount of signatures are collected, the referendum petition will be filed with the Atlanta City Council, whose members will have 50 days to review its validity. If validated, the November ballot will include the petition to get rid of the city law that authorizes the mayor's office to issue its lease agreement with the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Attorneys representing the Dekalb County residents and Atlanta's office of communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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