Manatt Files Amicus Brief in Election Rule Challenge Case Before Georgia Supreme Court

Manatt filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Georgia Democracy Task Force in January 2025 before the Georgia Supreme Court in support of the plaintiffs who had successfully challenged a set of election rules proposed shortly before the November 2024 election by the Georgia State Election Board (SEB). 

A trial court had ruled in favor of the plaintiff challengers and invalidated the SEB’s proposed rules and prevented their implementation for the 2024 election. The State’s appeal (with intervenors the Republican National Committee and the Georgia Republican Party also appealing) was taken directly to the state Supreme Court pursuant to Georgia rules. The Task Force had submitted comments to the SEB regarding the proposed rules and had appeared as amicus curiae in support of the plaintiffs in the trial court proceeding. In continuing its amicus support in the Supreme Court, the Task Force argued that an executive agency is constrained to promulgate rules only within the limits of its statutorily delegated authority and was not free to rely on general statutory language to make rules that were inconsistent with or added requirements to Election Code provisions. The Task Force’s brief then described how certain of the SEB rules at issue did just that, impermissibly attempting to expand or change existing rules and exceeding the agency’s authority.

The matter will be argued before the Supreme Court on March 19, 2025.

is a bipartisan group, primarily composed of lawyers whose aim is to defend the rule of law by safeguarding the integrity and the non-partisan administration of elections. The SEB is a state executive agency that has been delegated certain rulemaking authority by the Georgia General Assembly in the Election Code.

The Manatt team on the brief included Senior Counsel .