May 12—Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr waded into the legal battle over whether Cobb County can draw its own commission district lines Friday, filing briefs arguing the county's actions are unlawful and void.

Cobb Commissioner Keli Gambrill, a Republican, has filed two lawsuits against the county in response to the county commission's Democratic majority invoking "home rule" powers last October to redraw their own district boundaries. The home rule resolution was a novel legal gambit to keep Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson in office. A map passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed into law last year by Gov. Brian Kemp drew Richardson out of her district.

Gambrill's suits are before Cobb Superior Court Judge Ann Harris. In one suit, she is asking Harris to rule the commission's map unconstitutional. In the other, she's asking the judge to compel the county to replace its own map with the state's map.

Carr on Friday filed identical amicus briefs in the two suits. Such briefs are submitted by people who are not directly involved in a case, but wish to share relevant expertise or insight.

The Republican attorney general wrote that the Board of Commissioners' action "contravenes the State's reapportionment law, is beyond the Commissioners' power, and is void."

"The Plaintiff brought this lawsuit to answer the question of which electoral district lines are correct. The answer to that question is unequivocal. The State, not Cobb County, has the authority to apportion voting districts, and when the State has exercised that authority, no county can refute it," Carr wrote.

Legal argument

In the briefs, Carr wrote that the county cannot use home rule powers to infringe on the exclusive powers of the Georgia General Assembly.

The county ran afoul of the state's home rule provision, he wrote, by enacting a provision which affects the county's own elective offices, as well as the composition, form, and election procedures of those offices.

Counties, he added, can only enact local legislation in the absence of state or federal law.

"Essentially, home rule allows counties to fill in gaps left by higher authorities. In this case, the General Assembly explicitly addressed the gap that the Board of Commissioners tried to fill, namely Cobb County's voting districts," Carr wrote.

Carr cited precedent, arguing federal courts have already rejected the idea that counties can draw their own commission maps.

Carr pointed to the 2002 case Bodkey v. Taylor, when the courts considered a map drawn by Fulton County after the state had not addressed Fulton's districts. At the time, a district court did not give any deference to Fulton's proposed map, finding that "Georgia has withheld that power from the county boards of commissioners."

In another 2002 case, Smith v. Cobb County Board of Elections and Registrations, a court again reviewed a map which the state legislature had not approved, Carr wrote. The court found that the Cobb school board and commission were "without any authority to change the boundaries of the existing districts."

"The relief sought in Plaintiff's Complaint should be granted, and the apportionment boundaries created by the General Assembly and signed by the Governor should be enforced," Carr wrote.

The question of whether Richardson would remain in office under the state's map has been debated by legal observers.

If a judge strikes down the county's map and orders Richardson removed from office, the board could be in a stalemate until a replacement for District 2 commissioner is chosen. That's because the remaining four commissioners are split 2-2 between Democrats and Republicans.

A hearing in Gambrill's suits against Cobb has been scheduled for May 23.

Cobb County communications did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Richardson declined to comment.