DeKalb District Attorney Sherry Boston has filed a state lawsuit against a new Georgia law that turns some local elections in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton and Gwinnett Counties into nonpartisan races in 2028, including for district attorney, clerk of court, county commissioner, solicitor general and tax commissioner.
During a press conference on Wednesday in Liberty Plaza, across the street from the State Capitol, Boston was joined by Cobb County District Attorney Sonay Allen, Clayton County District Attorney Tasha Mosley and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
“The legislature did not give any legitimate reason for treating our counties, our elected officials, our voters different from the rest of the state’s 154 counties, and it is very hard to ignore that the five counties targeted by this law have large black voter populations and have all elected black female district attorneys,” Boston said.
House Bill 369, which was passed by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this year, targeted those five counties because they replaced the elected coroner with an unelected medical examiner.
“Republicans here at the state Capitol claim this new law is supposed to take the politics out of local races, but we know the truth. Republicans here at the state Capitol only want to take politics out of the equations in counties where they do not have a majority. There will be no changes to the ballots in any of Georgia’s other 154 counties,” Boston said.
The fact that those five counties are being treated differently is the key constitutional issue raised by the lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court. Lawsuit lays out Boston’s belief that HB 369 violates the Georgia Uniformity Clause, along with the Equal Protection Clauses under the U.S. and Georgia Constitutions.
The lawsuit also raises a procedural question under the state constitution: whether the legislation had already failed as a different Senate bill. House Bill 369 was originally food truck legislation that was turned into the form that is now law.
“This statute is clearly unconstitutional, and we believe it will be struck down,” Boston said. “As the longest tenured DA in this group, I am honored to lead the charge on behalf of the nearly 4 million Georgians who live in the 5 affected counties.”
While the lawsuit would affect all five counties, Boston is the only named plaintiff. Boston was the only person to speak during Wednesday’s press conference.
Boston also notes the new law would change the election calendar.
“Nonpartisan elections happen at different times, so they also are aiming to reduce the number of people that are voting in these elections, smaller number of people and less education about races. We shouldn’t be doing that. We should be making sure that every voter is the most informed they need to be, not strip information from the ballots,” she said.
A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr says, “We will defend the law as enacted and signed by the Governor.”
DeKalb CEO and DeKalb County commissioners are not covered by the new law because of the way they were structured.
