A Maryland judge ruled the Democrat-backed redistricting amendment is legally deficient and cannot appear on the November ballot, ruling lawmakers broke their own rules. The case now heads to the state Supreme Court.
A Maryland judge has blocked a Democrat-backed constitutional amendment from reaching the November ballot, dealing a blow to the party's effort to gerrymander the state's final Republican-held congressional seat. Judge Robert J. Thompson ruled Wednesday that the redistricting measure is legally deficient and intentionally misleading as written. The ruling is paused while the case races to the Maryland Supreme Court, which will have the final say.
The amendment, approved by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly during a special session earlier this month, would have rewritten the rules for drawing Maryland's congressional map. Under the proposal, constitutional requirements that districts be compact and respect natural boundaries would apply only to state legislative districts, not congressional ones. That change would have cleared the way for Democrat mapmakers to draw districts that cross the Chesapeake Bay -- and target the state's lone Republican in Congress.
Democrats hold seven of Maryland's eight congressional seats, and they have made no secret of wanting the eighth. Gov. Wes Moore called lawmakers into a two-day special session in August with exactly that goal in mind: making it easier to claim the last seat. No Republican voted for the constitutional change.
The amendment was designed to sidestep a 2022 court ruling that struck down a previous Democratic redistricting plan. By declaring the compactness and natural-boundary requirements inapplicable to congressional districts, lawmakers hoped to open the door to aggressive partisan map-drawing when the state redraws its congressional lines, which could happen as soon as 2028.
The lawsuit challenging the amendment was filed within days of the special session by Mike Howell, president of the conservative Oversight Project, along with several Republican lawmakers. Their argument was straightforward: the legislature violated its own procedures to ram the measure through.
State law requires ballot questions to be submitted to the State Board of Elections on or before July 1. Rather than follow that deadline, Democrats attached an exemption to the constitutional proposal -- and the exemption language was not introduced until the morning of the first day of the special session, leaving the public little time to examine it. Republican lawmakers argued the exemption was itself a constitutional change that should have required a separate vote.
Judge Thompson agreed. "Because the legislature did not follow the very laws it enacted, the court finds the enactment of HB2100 to be legally deficient," he wrote. He also found the ballot question language intentionally misleading, adding that it should disqualify the ballot question as currently written.
At the center of the fight is Rep. Andy Harris, the Republican who represents Maryland's 1st District east of the Chesapeake Bay. Harris chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, making him a prime target for Democrats eager to flip the delegation to a clean 8-0 sweep.
All members of the House Freedom Caucus are plaintiffs in the case, and they were quick to celebrate Wednesday's ruling. "A chamber that holds a supermajority is still a chamber bound by the law," said Del. Matt Morgan, who chairs the Maryland Freedom Caucus. "Today the court made clear that three-fifths of the vote doesn't buy you an exemption from the rules you wrote yourself. Maryland doesn't answer to kings, and it doesn't answer to a legislature that thinks it's one."
The battle is part of a nationwide redistricting arms race that began when President Donald Trump called on Texas to redraw its congressional map in favor of Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms. Maryland Democrats see their amendment as a counterpunch -- and Wednesday's ruling is a significant setback.
Judge Thompson paused his ruling to allow an immediate appeal, and the state has already filed one. Democrat leaders remain confident. Senate President Bill Ferguson said Marylanders deserve the right to vote on the question, while House Speaker Joseline Pena-Melnyk insisted the General Assembly acted within its authority.
Gov. Moore, who is named as a defendant in the case, said his administration respectfully disagrees with the ruling and will keep fighting. Senate Republican Leader Stephen Hershey, by contrast, said Republicans are very comfortable with the decision and fully expect the Supreme Court to uphold it.
The Maryland Supreme Court now faces a fast-moving decision with real consequences: if the ruling stands, the amendment stays off the ballot and Democrats must wait for another route to the eighth seat. If it falls, Maryland voters will decide in November whether to hand their legislature the keys to a partisan gerrymander. Either way, the outcome will reverberate well beyond the Free State -- in every state watching the redistricting arms race play out.
A Maryland judge ruled the Democrat-backed redistricting amendment is legally deficient and cannot appear on the November ballot, ruling lawmakers broke their own rules. The case now heads to the state Supreme Court.
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