Page:Pearson v. Kemp (20-14480) (2020) Decision.pdf/3

 for upcoming state and local runoff elections. Rather than waiting for a ruling on the motion for injunctive relief that covered ten counties, the plaintiffs proposed that the district court order “very limited” relief in “two or three counties.” This solution would allow the plaintiffs to quickly collect the data they sought without impeding the runoff elections. The district judge agreed with the plaintiffs, and said that he would “order and temporarily restrain the Defendants… from altering or destroying or erasing[,] or allowing the alteration, destruction, or erasing of any of the computer information on any of the [voting] machines” in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties.

True to his word, the district judge issued a written temporary restraining order on Sunday night that gave the plaintiffs what they said they wanted. That order enjoined the defendants from erasing or altering data on voting machines in the three counties listed above. It also ordered the defendants to produce a copy of the contract between the State of Georgia and Dominion Voting Systems. Two follow-up orders set an expedited evidentiary hearing for the morning of December 4, 2020 on the broader relief requested in the plaintiffs’ motion and certified that the Sunday night order contained the elements required for a permissive appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b).

A few days later, the plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal as to the district court’s Sunday night order. As a result, the district court canceled the hearing on the broader