(ATLANTA, Ga.) — The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the City of Atlanta has filed a new brief in federal court, arguing that the Cop City Vote campaign is “invalid,” and represents a “futile” effort to put the issue of the planned training center to a vote. The referendum comes after the city voted in June to approve an additional $31 million in funding for the controversial project.

The current effort by activists is to collect 70,000 signatures, which would then put a question into a general vote in November. That question would then have the power to cancel the authorization behind the lease to the Atlanta Police Foundation. The city’s argument in court is that this is untrue; and a revocation of the authorization would not cancel the lease itself.

“The Georgia Supreme Court has held that (state law) does not authorize referendums to repeal city ordinances,” the filing says. “Repeal of a years’ old ordinance cannot retroactively revoke authorization to do something that has already been done. But even if the referendum could claim to result in a revocation or cancellation of the lease, it would still be invalid because it would amount to an impermissible impairment of that contract.”

The filing comes about a week after a group of DeKalb County residents sued to be able to gather signatures. Citizens of unincorporated DeKalb County, including those living directly around the planned training center, are barred from voting because they don’t live in the city proper.

In that lawsuit, plaintiffs Lisa Baker, Jacqueline Dougherty, Keyanna Jones, and Amelia Weltner said that “Even though their own community bears the immediate impacts of the Training Center, ecologically and otherwise, Plaintiffs only ability to directly impact the City of Atlanta’s decision-making process is through acting as circulators of this petition.”

“We know [the referendum] is going to be unsuccessful, if it’s done honestly. We are making sure we continue monitoring the process but there is no one in law enforcement or my administration that would ever get in the way of them doing their constitutional right to have a petition,” Mayor Andre Dickens claimed.

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