A Maryland judge has blocked a Democratic-backed redistricting amendment from appearing on the November ballot, citing missed deadlines. The ruling is paused pending an appeal to the state Supreme Court.
The ruling impacts Democrats' ability to control congressional district boundaries in Maryland, potentially affecting the balance of power in the House of Representatives in future elections.
A Maryland court has ruled that a proposed constitutional amendment, which Democrats hoped would enable them to redraw the state's congressional districts for the 2028 elections, cannot appear on the November ballot. The decision by Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Robert Thompson cited procedural violations by state lawmakers concerning deadlines for ballot measures. The referendum, approved by the Maryland Legislature, would have allowed voters to ensure that congressional districts are not bound by the same geographic rules as state legislative districts. This change could have potentially allowed Democrats to enshrine an 8-0 gerrymander as soon as the 2028 election. Judge Thompson sided with arguments from the conservative Oversight Project and Republican state lawmakers who sued, stating that lawmakers missed their own July 1 deadline for certifying ballot measure summaries. The state attorney general's office had argued that the deadline did not apply to this specific amendment because lawmakers wrote their own ballot summary. The judge has paused the effect of his ruling to allow for an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court. This setback for Democrats mirrors similar challenges in other states, such as Virginia, where the Supreme Court invalidated a redistricting ballot measure due to procedural violations.