It's Getting Constitutional in Brookhaven

The initial news that some folks in the Brookhaven community wanted to form an incorporated City of Brookhaven landed innocently enough. While the issue was certainly bound to be controversial, the generally affluent suburbs on the north side of Atlanta had seen Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, Milton and Johns Creek all attain cityhood over the past several years, so the process wasn't totally unfamiliar. But as the quest to carve a City of Brookhaven out of Dekalb County found its way to the Georgia Legislature this session, it became apparent this fight would be particularly intense. Indeed, local groups opposing a City of Brookhaven are now raising the specter of lawsuits alleging violations of the Voting Rights Act and the 14th and 15 Amendments. And some of the aforementioned new cities are being dragged into it. Brace yourself for a very contentious public debate that will be riven by race, that issue Atlanta just can't ever seem to move past. [Reporter Newspapers]