Federal appeals court orders new review of Georgia’s election law case

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a 2023 ruling that partially blocked Georgia’s contested election law that bans handing out food or drinks to voters standing in line.

The appeals court sent the case back to the U.S. District Court for further review. The appeals court decision argued that the U.S. District Court did not apply the correct law to the case and suggested the court use the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC, which was vacated in 2024.

The appeals court argued that the case is a “facial challenge” of the First Amendment, and the district court needs to look at the broader implications of the case rather than the plaintiff’s involvement.

“Rather than answering that question by charting out ‘the full range of activities,’ the district court looked only to the plaintiffs’ own line-relief efforts, focusing on the messages that voters said they understood these efforts to be conveying,” according to the opinion.

The ruling does not resolve whether the law’s 25-foot “polling-line” buffer zone violates the First Amendment and leaves the lower court to reevaluate the case.

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger applauded the decision in a news release.

“The Eleventh Circuit’s ruling reinforces a simple truth: Georgia has the right and the responsibility to shield voters from influence and interference at the polls,” Raffensperger said in the release. 

“Despite what Stacey Abrams and her cronies say, our laws safeguard every Georgian’s right to free, fair and fast elections.” 

The Georgia law that was challenged in the case was the Election Integrity Act of 2021, known as SB 202. The legislation made sweeping changes to Georgia’s election law following the 2020 election, including prohibiting passing out food and water within 150 feet of a polling place, inside a polling place or within 25 feet of any voter standing in line.