![Republicans appeal Georgia judge’s ruling striking down controversial new election rules](https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/stellar/prod/c-gettyimages-2177845197.jpg?c=16x9&q=w_800,c_fill)
Republicans appeal Georgia judge’s ruling striking down controversial new election rules
CNN
State and national Republicans on Thursday appealed a Georgia judge’s ruling striking down a slate of controversial new election rules passed by Donald Trump allies, including two related to the state’s election certification process that Democrats say would inject “chaos” into the critical battleground state after Election Day.
State and national Republicans on Thursday appealed a Georgia judge’s ruling striking down a slate of controversial new election rules passed by Donald Trump allies, including two related to the state’s election certification process that Democrats say would inject “chaos” into the critical battleground state after Election Day. Attorneys for the Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party appealed the ruling directly to the Georgia Supreme Court, which has the authority to review election contest cases or certain state constitutional challenges without having to wait for the state’s intermediate court to weigh in. The state Supreme Court has the option of refusing the direct appeal. RNC chairman Michael Whatley said in a statement Thursday evening that the ruling issued by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox a day earlier “exemplified the very worst of judicial activism.” “By overturning the Georgia State Election Board’s commonsense rules passed to safeguard Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with the Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability, and the integrity of our elections,” he said. “We have immediately appealed this egregious order to ensure commonsense rules are in place for the election - we will not let this stand.” Cox struck down seven rules passed by Georgia’s State Election Board, including one that would require county election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them and another that would allow them to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.” “The court here declares that these rules are illegal, unconstitutional and void,” Cox wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250216092711.jpg)
Amid Democrats’ shock and bickering over how much to respond to President Donald Trump is a deeper question rippling through leaders across the Capitol and across the country: How much should they rely on the same institutional and procedural maneuvers they used during the first Trump term, and how much are they willing to wield their own wrecking balls?
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215102651.jpg)
In less than a month in office the Trump administration has simultaneously dismantled foreign aid programs that support fragile democracies abroad and put on leave federal workers who protect US elections at home in a move that current and former officials say abandons decades of American commitments to democracy.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215092938.jpg)
Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215043617.jpg)
The Trump administration is forcing out senior leadership at the National Archives and Records Administration in a major shakeup, according to a source familiar. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the archives since the agency asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after he left office.
![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215004209.jpg)
The morning after the mass resignation of prosecutors sparked a crisis inside the Trump Justice Department, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove led a meeting with the Justice Department’s public integrity section. His message: they had to choose one career lawyer to file a dismissal of the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to three people briefed on the meeting.