Gwinnett DA Patsy Austin-Gatson Sues Georgia Over Law Targeting Five Black-Led Counties

Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson has filed a lawsuit against Georgia House Bill 369, the state law that strips partisan primaries from a slate of local elected offices in five metro Atlanta counties. Austin-Gatson held a press conference to announce her legal challenge, adding her name to a growing list of metro Atlanta prosecutors pushing back against the measure before it can reshape how their offices are chosen at the ballot box.

The law, as reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, removes partisan primaries for district attorneys, county commissioners, school boards, tax commissioners, court clerks, solicitor-generals, and county surveyors, while explicitly leaving county sheriffs untouched. Gov. Brian Kemp signed HB 369 into law on May 12, 2026, after it cleared the state Senate 32-21 in late March and the House 93-64 two days later, with an effective date set for January 1, 2028, according to Ballotpedia News.

What makes the law unusual is its narrow reach. HB 369 applies only to Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett counties, using a statutory criterion that targets counties which abolished the elected office of county coroner in favor of a medical examiner system, per the same outlet's reporting on the bill's structure. Those five counties happen to contain Georgia's largest concentrations of Black voters and are each currently led by Black Democratic women serving as their elected district attorneys, a demographic pattern that has fueled accusations the law was drawn with a specific political target in mind, according to WABE.

A Legal Fight Already Underway Before Gwinnett Joined

Austin-Gatson's filing follows an earlier lawsuit brought on June 3, 2026, when DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston filed the initial state challenge to HB 369 in Fulton County Superior Court. Boston was joined at a Capitol press conference that day by fellow metro Atlanta district attorneys Fani Willis, Sonay Allen, and Tasha Mosley, WABE reported at the time. The legal arguments against the law center on Georgia's Uniformity Clause, which prohibits special laws targeting specific counties, along with equal protection guarantees under the U.S. and Georgia constitutions and Georgia's Rejected Bills Clause, according to Democracy Docket's case tracking.

The State of Georgia has already moved to defend the statute in court, filing a motion to dismiss the DAs' lawsuit on July 20, 2026. A Fulton County Superior Court hearing on that challenge is scheduled for September 18, 2026, per Democracy Docket's coverage of the case. How the court rules on that motion — and whether plaintiffs seek an injunction to halt implementation before the 2028 election cycle — will determine whether HB 369 takes effect as scheduled.

Turnout Timing And Bipartisan Doubts

Beyond the constitutional questions, critics have pointed to how HB 369 restructures the calendar itself. The law shifts county commission and school board elections to the May statewide primary, when voter turnout is historically lower than in November general elections, while district attorney races will be decided in November without a partisan primary at all, according to Ballotpedia's analysis of the bill.

Opposition to the law was not confined to Democratic officials. In April 2026, Stephen Aaron, chairman of the 9th Congressional District Republican Party covering Gwinnett, publicly urged Gov. Kemp to veto HB 369, arguing that nonpartisan races strip voter accountability from local offices and shift influence toward special interest donors, WABE reported. Kemp signed the bill into law the following month regardless, as part of a broader package of 2026 election measures that also included House Bill 1215, creating an additional superior court judgeship for the Gwinnett Judicial Circuit.

The dispute over HB 369 arrives as metro Atlanta's district attorneys have faced other legal battles this year. A Fulton County judge dismissed a separate suit from the DAs against a state prosecutor watchdog panel in July, though that ruling noted Boston's constitutional challenge to HB 369 was continuing to move forward separately. Austin-Gatson's lawsuit now places her alongside Boston, Willis, and their colleagues in a fight that will likely hinge on whether Georgia courts accept the coroner-versus-medical-examiner distinction as a legitimate basis for applying different election rules to just five counties.