On Friday, a federal appeals court ruled against a grassroots effort that began in 2023 to put the now-open Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, dubbed “Cop City” by opponents, on the ballot.
Four non-Atlanta residents sued the city of Atlanta that year over a local law that prevented them from helping collect signatures for a referendum, arguing that it violated their First Amendment rights, given that they lived near where the facility was eventually built in DeKalb County.
But after a federal district court ruled in the plaintiffs’ favor, the city appealed, and the case remained in legal limbo for years.
Until last week, when a divided three-judge panel ruled that the plaintiffs cannot use the petition and referendum process to repeal the city ordinance that allows Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens to lease 381 acres to the Atlanta Police Foundation for the new training center, and as a result, the non-residents cannot show they will suffer “irreparable harm” by not being allowed to participate.
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