A new lawsuit was filed Tuesday challenging Senate Bill 333, which served to create a new city municipality known as Mulberry from unincorporated Gwinnett County.
Stephen Hughes filed the lawsuit, alleging that SB 333 was unconstitutional under the Georgia Constitution, according to the filing documents. The new lawsuit was reportedly filed in the Superior Court of Fulton County and is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against the State of Georgia.
This marks the third active lawsuit Hughes has filed to have SB 333 ruled unconstitutional in his effort to revoke the City of Mulberry vote back in May.
Residents of the impacted area in Gwinnett County voted in favor of adoption on May 21, pulling in over 56% of the vote.
The three lawsuit filings made by Hughes include the following:
- A complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the State of Georgia.
- A complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against Gwinnett County.
- A mandamus complaint against the individual board members of the Gwinnett County Board of Registration and Elections and the Gwinnett elections supervisor
The first lawsuit he filed seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to remove the city council election for the City of Mulberry, set to take place this November.
"SB 333 created a city that cannot collect property ad valorem tax," Hughes representative Allen Lightcap wrote. "This is strictly and explicitly prohibited according to binding precedent of the Supreme Court of Georgia in Peacock v. Georgia Municipal Association. The General Assembly can only regulate a city's constitutional authority to tax through general law, not local law. SB 333 is plainly a local law, so its restrictions on taxation must be immediately struck down."
