Judge throws out Maryland congressional map over 'extreme' gerrymandering

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

A Maryland judge has thrown out the state’s congressional map, calling it an “extreme partisan gerrymander” in what is a victory for Republicans who said Democrats in the state General Assembly sought to silence their votes.

The ruling Friday by Anne Arundel County Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia marks the first time in Maryland history a judge has found a congressional map violated the state constitution, deciding that it violated rules laid out in Maryland law traditionally applied to legislative districts requiring them to be compact and to give regard to political subdivisions. She also ruled that the map in turn violated the state constitution’s equal protection, free speech and free elections clauses.

Battaglia enjoined the map from being used in this year’s primary and general elections in Maryland and ordered the General Assembly to redraw the map by March 30 — a furious deadline for what has often been a weeks-long process.

The case is undoubtedly headed for the Maryland Court of Appeals as this summer’s primary elections fast approach. And its outcome could have big consequences in the midterm elections both for Maryland and nationally as Democrats’ majority in Congress hangs by a thread.

-snip-

By Meagan Flynn
Today at 12:46 p.m. EDT


Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/03/25/maryland-congressional-map-thrown-out-gerrymandering/

[The Mouth]

1. Districts should be as compact as mathematically possible

Regardless of who loses or benefits.

[FBaggins]

2. MD would definitely fail by that measure

But it would have over the last decade or more.

[The Mouth]

5. "It's 'gerrymandering' when *they* do it"

Is a joke over 200 years old.

The only fair way is mathematically. Even 'non-partisan' committees generate more heat than light and are often taken over by one faction or another it seems.

[elleng]

3. ' furious deadline ' indeed!

[turbinetree]

4. We'll (R) Andy Harris should be all by himself on a island to represent, after all he wanted

to bring a gun into the Congressional house chamber and he thought the 2020 election should have been overturned....since he has been galivanting around the eastern shore doing what.....telling everyone that the past election was fraudulent......and now this.....

[Faux pas]

6. Kickin' With Gusto!

[cstanleytech]

7. I don't know if they were gerrymandering or not however I will say

that I do not approve of gerrymandering no matter who is doing it.

[11 Bravo]

9. Nor do I, but I approve of unilateral disarmament even less.

I see no reason for states with Democratically controlled legislative bodies to play by one set of rules, while Repug states gerrymander the fuck out of their districts with the complicity of a partisan Supreme Court.

[GB_RN]

11. From What I've Read...

Maryland is one of the most gerrymandered states in the country and one of the few that is gerrymandered for the Democrats.

Given what the GOPQ-balls have done in Texas and the other "red" states, the blue states have to gerrymander just to maintain balance...and it still isn't quite enough. I'm not saying I like it, but to keep from being overwhelmed by these terrorists, I get it.

[LiberalFighter]

8. It is more than fair. The Republicans and whites were over counted.

[LenaBaby61]

13. THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[MichMan]

10. Creative interpretation of the state law by the Maryland AG

"The Maryland Attorney General’s Office repeatedly argued that the state constitution’s provisions laying out criteria for legislative districts — that they should be compact and give regard to natural boundaries and political subdivisions — only applied to state legislative districts, not congressional. They also pointed out that there is nothing in the Maryland Constitution that forbids map-drawers from making political considerations when drawing maps, and that there is no way to determine if partisanship in a map is “extreme.”

[The Mouth]

12. I hate it when something is called "partisan gerrymandering"

That is as redundant as saying 'wet water'. Gerrymandering is partisan by definition, and any drawing of districts to favor one political faction over the other is gerrymandering. Words mean things.