A Maryland judge blocked the state from putting a congressional redistricting question before voters in November, handing Republicans an initial victory in their fight against a Democratic maneuver that could threaten the state’s lone GOP congressman.
Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Robert J. Thompson issued the injunction Wednesday, finding that the General Assembly must comply with the ballot procedures established under state law.
The ruling is on hold while the case is appealed to the Maryland Supreme Court.
Republicans accused the Democratic supermajority in Annapolis of attempting to rewrite the rules to help oust Rep. Andy Harris, the only Republican in Maryland’s congressional delegation.
Del. Ryan Nawrocki, a Baltimore County Republican and one of the plaintiffs, said the decision exposed Democrats’ “rules for thee, but not for we” approach.
“Annapolis Democrats wrote the deadlines, expected everyone else to follow them, and then ignored their own law the moment it was inconvenient,” he said. “Today the court said that doesn’t fly.”
The General Assembly approved the proposed constitutional amendment during a two-day special session in early August.
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The referendum would state that Maryland’s congressional districts are not required to be “geographically contiguous” and “compact,” pushing back against requirements laid out by a judge in 2022.
The measure would not create a new congressional map. It would instead make it harder to mount future legal challenges if Democratic lawmakers redraw the map to target Harris.
Attorney Jeffrey B. Clark Sr. argued Tuesday that lawmakers sidestepped a law they passed during the regular 2026 legislative session to rush the question onto the ballot.
Clark represents Mike Howell of the conservative Oversight Project, along with a group of Republican state delegates and senators. He sparred for hours in court with Assistant Attorney General Daniel M. Kobrin over whether the legislature followed the required process.
In his Wednesday memorandum, Thompson pointed to language in the Maryland Constitution and Declaration of Rights stating that officials exercising legislative and executive power “are the Trustees of the Public, and, as such, accountable for their conduct …”
“The General Assembly of Maryland, working within the confines of the Maryland Constitution, has enacted certain laws which cover the means, mode, and method of proposing ballot referenda for the purposes of amending the very Constitution under which it operates,” Thompson continued. “With this understanding, the legislature itself must follow the means and methods those laws describe when it chooses to refer ballot question to vote by the citizens at general election.”
Thompson said he does not believe the state constitution sets a deadline restricting when lawmakers may propose ballot questions. Still, he wrote that “from a practical standpoint, the calendar will.”
A separate lawsuit challenging the referendum remains pending in Dorchester County.
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