Judge Lynne Battaglia in Anne Arundel County denied the DCCC’s motion to intervene on Friday, according to court documents obtained by National Review.
A Maryland circuit court judge has denied a motion by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to intervene as a defendant in an anti-gerrymandering lawsuit that accuses state Democrats of intentionally drawing an unconstitutional and extremely partisan political map.
Circuit Court Judge Lynne Battaglia in Anne Arundel County denied the DCCC’s motion to intervene on Friday, according to court documents obtained by National Review. Marc Elias, a prominent Democratic lawyer representing the DCCC filed the motion late last month.
Doug Mayer, a spokesman for the nonprofit Fair Maps Maryland, said rejecting the motion was a “no-brainer.” Fair Maps Maryland filed the anti-gerrymandering lawsuit in December.
“The last thing Marylanders wanted was political operatives from Washington, D.C. interfering with their state elections and we thank the court for making the obvious right decision,” Mayer said in a prepared statement. He added that Democratic leaders in the Maryland General Assembly are “on their own now, and they will be forced to defend their illegal and unconstitutional map in a court of law.”
The Fair Maps Maryland lawsuit claims that Maryland’s new political map, approved by Democratic lawmakers, is unconstitutional and based on extreme partisan gerrymandering. It is one of two lawsuits targeting the map. The Princeton Gerrymandering Project has given Maryland’s congressional map an “F” grade for offering a “significant Democratic advantage.”
In his motion, Elias wrote that the DCCC’s purpose for intervening is “to defend its interests in congressional districts in Maryland” and to “allow Democratic candidates to be competitive” in the deep-blue state. The new congressional map keeps seven safe Democratic seats, and makes the lone Republican district more competitive for Democrats.
Fair Maps Maryland leaders blasted the state’s congressional map as an example of “blatant voter suppression,” and they accused Elias – a harsh critic of partisan gerrymandering in Republican states – of engaging in “an appalling display of hypocrisy.” Lawyers for the group argued that the DCCC lacks standing to be a party in the case, and that its interests won’t be impacted directly by the litigation.
Maryland’s new political maps are based on its 2010 maps, which critics have called the most gerrymandered in the nation. The Washington Post has called Maryland’s third congressional district “the nation’s most bizarrely gerrymandered district.” In 2017, former Democratic governor Martin O’Malley acknowledged that he had engaged in manipulating maps for political purposes, a practice he said he no longer supports.
Maryland Democrats argue that the 2010 redistricting maps largely survived legal challenges, and since the new maps are cleaned-up versions of the old maps, the new maps likely will too.
Also on Friday, the Court of Appeals of Maryland pushed back the state’s filing deadline for the 2022 election, a possible indication the state’s political maps could be thrown out. Some Maryland Republicans have called for the courts to substitute a congressional map drawn up by a redistricting commission appointed by Republican governor Larry Hogan until a new map can be drawn up. Hogan’s commission drew up a map that more neatly divides the districts and has fewer districts crossing county lines, the Baltimore Sun reported in December. The maps from Hogan’s commission were rejected by the General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats.