A controversial Cobb County school board map clears its final hurdle at the Gold Dome

A Cobb County School bus moves down a street on Friday, March 13, 2020, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp approved a controversial Cobb County school board map on Tuesday, punctuating a contentious spell of wrangling and legislative hardball. The governor’s signature is the map’s penultimate hurdle; it will now head to U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross for review. 

Ross charged lawmakers with redrawing the county’s school board map in December 2023 after ruling that the previous map was likely to have been unconstitutionally gerrymandered. 

The December injunction was a win for the group of Cobb residents who sued county officials. They claimed that officials diluted the voting power of people of color, using census data to “pack” districts with Black and Latino voters to preserve a white majority on the school board. Ross agreed, preliminarily.