It’s been a wild, past few weeks, when it comes to surprise rulings on redistricting.
RedState reports that the US Supreme Court intervened to overturn Governor Ever’s decision. Tony Ever’s district-level map in Wisconsin. That left the left reeling, not because of the consequences of possibly losing a district or two, but because the precedent of the ruling took another big bite out of the Voting Rights Act, which Democrats have used for decades as a kind of “cheat code” to gerrymander in their favor while stopping Republicans from doing the same.
The extreme Democrat gerrymander in Maryland is now dead, shockingly.
🚨BREAKING NEWS: Maryland’s state court has thrown out the newly-enacted congressional maps. It found that the map unfairly favours Democrats and violated the state constitution. https://t.co/cgUoIdd0Gc
— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) March 25, 2022
Maryland is a long-standing center for absurd gerrymandering. Despite Democrats being two to one with Republicans, Maryland’s last congressional map gave Democrats a 7-1 edge. This time, however, the legislature chose to focus on that single GOP district and make it more competitive.
The 30,000-foot view of this ruling is that the judge said the legislature’s map violated the state constitution, which has some provisions in it requiring districts to be compact, while giving some eye toward political subdivisions (i.e. if 35 percent of voters are Republicans, they shouldn’t be getting only 12 percent of the districts). From there, the judge then ruled the map, because it violated the state’s constitution, also violated the free speech and equal protection clauses.
It is certain that the ruling will be appealed. But Gov. Larry Hogan’s judicial appointments over the last several years, the chance this ruling is overturned is slim. Maryland’s appeals court and supreme court lean heavily Republican at this point. While there will be much complaining by the media and left, but I repeat myself, Democrats might have hit a wall about one of their most favorite states to gerrymander.
Hogan previously asked the legislature to approve the map that was drawn by the commission, which was nonpartisan and still favors Democrats. It may be the only way forward, even if the courts intervene and continue the process.
Following today’s monumental ruling, I am calling on the General Assembly to immediately pass the independent Citizens Redistricting Commission’s maps. Full statement here pic.twitter.com/pzwWPyc1B4
— Governor Larry Hogan (@GovLarryHogan) March 25, 2022
It is not impossible to keep the timeline on track. The state’s primary isn’t until July 19th, after being pushed back recently, giving several more months for possible litigation. The Republicans may end up winning an additional district. This would be huge.
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