BALTIMORE — A Maryland judge on Friday rejected a General Assembly-approved map of the state’s congressional districts that had been challenged by Republicans.
Two GOP groups contended the map was unfairly drawn to favor Democrats and doesn’t abide by Maryland constitutional guidelines.
In her decision, Lynne A. Battaglia, a retired state appeals court judge assigned to the Anne Arundel Circuit Court case, declared the 2021 plan unconstitutional and said state legislators should “develop a new Congressional Plan that is constitutional.”
In two lawsuits considered by the judge together, Republicans argued that partisan gerrymandering of the congressional districts by Democratic state lawmakers violated provisions in the state constitution.
One suit was filed by a group of Republican state lawmakers backed by Fair Maps Maryland, an anti-gerrymandering advocacy group tied to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. The other was brought by the national conservative activist group Judicial Watch on behalf of 10 Republican voters in the state, including two Republican congressional candidates, state Delegate Neil Parrott and Jeff Werner.
A 1972 amendment to the section of the constitution on the state legislature decrees that its legislative districts “shall consist of adjoining territory, be compact in form and of substantially equal population” and that lawmakers must consider natural boundaries and the borders of political subdivisions like counties and cities.
Lawyers for state attorney general Brian Frosh — who defended the map — said the Maryland Constitution doesn’t specifically apply the same rules for congressional districts.
But the Republican plaintiffs argued that the constitution’s allusion to “legislative districts” was meant to be generic and to cover congressional districts as well as state legislative maps.
According to legal experts, the Maryland case could be appealed by either side and ultimately be decided by the Maryland Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.
Democratic leaders have said the map creates more compact districts and makes six of the eight districts at least somewhat more competitive. The maps must be redrawn every 10 years to account for population shifts determined by the national census.
Currently, the state’s lone Republican congressman, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, represents the 1st Congressional District that includes the Eastern Shore and a portion of Baltimore County.
Courts around the country have been dealing this year with complaints of alleged “gerrymandering.” Gerrymandering commonly involves stacking large numbers of the opposite party’s voters into a limited number of districts, leaving that party with too few voters to compete elsewhere.
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