Supreme Court Hearing Maryland Gerrymandering Case

WASHINGTON, DC — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a Maryland gerrymandering case in which Democrats who controlled the state government in 2011 are accused of successfully redrawing a congressional district with the intent of ousting the Republican incumbent. The high court is taking up its second big partisan redistricting case of the term as the justices signal they may place limits on drawing maps for political gain.

The Supreme Court has never struck down districts for being too partisan. A decision in favor of opponents of partisan gerrymandering could cut into the political power of the dominant party in states in which one party controls the state government.

Maryland's 6th Congressional District had been centered in rural, Republican-leaning northwestern Maryland and had elected a Republican to Congress for 20 years. Incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett won re-election in 2010 by 28 percentage points.

But in the 2011 redistricting, Democrats altered the district to take in some Democratic suburbs of Washington, D.C. The new district had 62,000 fewer Republicans and 33,000 more Democrats. Bartlett lost the 2012 election by 21 percentage points.

Republican voters who sued over the changes said the state violated their First Amendment rights.

Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, is defending the district as competitive for both parties. Frosh said the district has elected a moderate Democrat, and in 2014, a friendlier year for Republican candidates, the victory margin of Democratic Rep. John Delaney dropped to less than 2 percentage points, though it rose again in 2016.

Republican Gov. Larry Hogan is siding with the voters who sued, saying partisan gerrymandering results "in real and concrete harms to our democratic republic." Hogan has proposed a nonpartisan redistricting commission.

Over the past 16 months, courts struck down political districting plans drawn by Republicans in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Federal judges threw out a state legislative map in Wisconsin and a congressional plan in North Carolina. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court invalidated the state's congressional districts and replaced them with a court-drawn plan.

In Wisconsin, Democrats are challenging legislative districts drawn by Republicans statewide. Those districts gave Republicans a huge majority in a state that otherwise is closely divided between the parties.
The court is expected to issue decisions in both cases by late June.

The Supreme Court has put the drawing of new maps on hold in North Carolina and Wisconsin, but refused to block the Pennsylvania court's adoption of revised congressional districts for this year's elections.

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

Photo credit: Jacquelyn Martin/Associated Press