The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has scheduled oral arguments for December in the case that will determine the future of a signature collection effort that aims to place the continued construction of Atlanta’s public safety training center to a public vote.
The hearing has been scheduled for Dec. 14, months after organizers submitted more than 116,000 signatures to the city in an attempt to put a referendum on the ballot. The city of Atlanta filed an appeal shortly after a federal court judge in July ruled in favor of DeKalb County residents, allowing them and others living outside of Atlanta to collect signatures for the referendum petition drive.
The order also reset a 60-day deadline to finish signature collections.
In court filings, the city has argued the entire referendum effort is invalid, no matter how many signatures were collected. In September, the court of appeals granted the city a temporary delay in the July order.
About a week after the appellate court ruling, organizers submitted what they say are more than 116,000 signatures to the city to start the verification process. The city clerk is responsible for verifying that at least 58,000 signatures are from valid Atlanta residents who were registered to vote in the 2021 election — a process that city officials say won’t begin until after the appeals court makes a final ruling.
A memo from Robert Ashe, an attorney working for the city, says the city can’t legally begin the verification process until the decision.
Since then, multiple First Amendment organizations and experts have filed briefs in support of the referendum petition. The collected signatures were also posted online by the city.
When the referendum petition was launched in June, organizers hoped to have the issue of the training center on the November ballot. Now that oral arguments have been scheduled for December, it is unclear when the court of appeals might issue a ruling and if there will be enough time for the issue to be on the March ballot.
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