‘The Court Has No Choice’: Judge Torpedoes Maryland Gerrymandering Amendment From Ballot

A Maryland judge on Wednesday stopped a Democrat-backed gerrymandering measure from appearing on the ballot this year.

Lawmakers had passed Senate Bill 29, and Gov. Wes Moore signed it in May, changing requirements for ballot questions, including a July 1 deadline. On Aug. 3, the House passed House Bill 2100 to place a mid-decade redistricting measure on the ballot, a move anticipated to give Democrats a more favorable congressional map.

“The court finds that the process used by the General Assembly to propose ballot Question 3 was deficient,” Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Robert Thompson’s opinion said Wednesday. “Further, in the General Assembly’s rush to pass the measure in a hastily called special session, the presumptions and thus the wording of the question itself are deficient. The court has no choice but to enjoin the board of elections from including ballot Question 3.on the general election ballot for the November 3, 2026.”

The state will likely appeal the case.

The Oversight Project, the Maryland Freedom Caucus, and Republican state Sens. Steve Hershey and Justin Ready are the plaintiffs in the case challenging the state in Howell v. Maryland.

In putting the gerrymandering measure on the ballot, the plaintiffs say the Legislature failed to follow the law.

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The judge agreed, noting in the ruling that 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,” and that “the legislature itself must follow the means and methods those laws describe when it chooses to refer a ballot question to a vote by the citizens at a general election.”

The new congressional map is aimed at taking away the lone Republican congressional district held by Rep. Andy Harris.

Oversight Project Vice President of Litigation Jeffrey Clark argued the case Tuesday.

“After powering through an expedited emergency set of briefs and about five hours of oral argument yesterday in Annapolis, it is very rewarding to see that the Judge assigned to the case agreed with the catalogue of legal errors we laid out that the General Assembly and Governor Moore made in their hurry-up Special Session,” Clark said in a public statement Wednesday. “Now we will proceed with energy and this wind at our backs as we go up to defend this victory on appeal before the Maryland Supreme Court.”

That should prevent the measure from being on the ballot, just as it would prevent a citizen-initiated measure from going on the ballot under Senate Bill 29, plaintiffs contend.

Further, Clark said voters shouldn’t decide on the matter while it’s still being litigated because “the toothpaste can’t be put back into the tube.”

Moore signed the legislation placing the constitutional amendment to change standards for congressional redistricting on the ballot on Aug. 5. The state constitutional amendment could effectively make it easier to gerrymander mid-decade.

Maryland Assistant Attorney General Daniel Kobrin argued that state legislators are not governed by Senate Bill 29’s deadline for ballot measures. He said the Legislature gets its power from the state constitution.

“Statute cannot defeat the Constitution,” Kobrin told the judge.

Oversight Project President Mike Howell has said he anticipates the case going to the Maryland Supreme Court.

“This is a big win not only for Marylanders but fans of justice across the country,” Howell said in a public statement. “We had the facts and law on our side and won, and that won’t change if the state appeals.”