A Maryland judge ruled Friday that Democrats in the state had signed an “extreme gerrymander” and thrown out the state’s new congressional card, the first time this reclassification cycle involving districts signed by Democrats has been defeated in court.
The ruling by senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County found that the map signed by Democrats had “constitutional flaws” and ignored requirements to focus on “compactness” and holding similar communities together. .
“All the testimony in this case supports the notion that the vote of Republican voters was watered down and that their right to vote and be heard was diminished with the effectiveness of a Democratic voter,” Judge Battaglia wrote in her opinion.
The congressional card signed by the Democrats would most likely have guaranteed them at least seven of the eight seats in the Maryland House, or 87 percent of the state’s seats. President Biden carried Maryland with 65 percent of the vote in 2020.
Judge Battaglia ordered the General Assembly to redraw the map by March 30, an extremely tight deadline for a complicated process that often takes weeks, and she organized a hearing for the new map on April 1. This year, the Maryland Court of Appeals moved the state’s primary from June 28 to July 19 due to pending legal challenges over the new card.
What you need to know about reclassification
Democrats across the country have taken a much more aggressive approach to this reclassification cycle than in the past, trying to counterbalance what they have long labeled extreme Republican gerrymanders from the 2010 cycle. The Republicans’ victories in that year’s drawing helped the party retain power in the House of Representatives, despite a Democratic presidential-level victory in 2012.
Democratic state legislators in New York, Illinois and Oregon this year drafted new maps that would have given them a significant advantage over the Republicans — and congressional delegations that run counter to each state’s general partisan propensity.
Rather than aggressively add new seats this cycle, for the most part Republicans have sought to bolster their previous advantages in gerrymandered maps in states like Texas and Georgia, eliminating competition and bringing Democrats together in deep blue districts.
The Maryland decision comes as state courts have become a central battleground for parties and voters to challenge cards by calling them partisan gerrymanders, following a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that partisan gerrymandering could not be challenged at the federal level. This year, state courts in Ohio and North Carolina threw out cards signed by lawmakers as unconstitutional gerrymanders.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican whose veto against the map was overturned by the Democrat-controlled legislature, praised the decision and called on the General Assembly to approve a map prepared by an independent committee he named. had founded.
“This ruling is a monumental victory for any Marylander who cares about protecting our democracy, bringing fairness to our elections and returning leadership to the people,” Mr Hogan said in a statement.
How US reclassification works
What is reclassification? It is redrawing the boundaries of the congressional and state legislative districts. It happens every 10 years, after the census, to reflect changes in the population.
The office of Maryland Attorney General and a Democrat Brian Frosh said it was reviewing the decision and had not yet decided whether to appeal.
Fair Maps Maryland, a Republican group that supported the challenge to the state’s districts, celebrated the decision in a statement.
“Calling this a big deal would be the understatement of the century,” said Doug Mayer, a spokesperson for the group. “Judge Battaglia’s ruling confirms what we’ve all known for years — Maryland is the ground for gerrymandering, our districts and the political realities stink of it, and there’s abundant evidence that it’s happening.”
The decision was also praised by outside groups that have attempted to review the country’s reclassification process.
“Maryland’s congressional map is a textbook example of extremely partisan gerrymandering, and the court is right to scrap it,” Joshua Graham Lynn, the chief executive of RepresentUs, a bipartisan voting rights advocacy group, said in a statement. “We’ve seen this cycle of redistricting over and over again. When politicians from both sides are in control of drawing maps, they begin to manipulate districts to retain as much power as possible.”
Alyce McFadden contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy research contributed.