The Maryland Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected a challenge to a General Assembly-approved map of state legislative districts that multiple lawsuits from Republican politicians and voters contended violated provisions of the state’s constitution.
The ruling allows the new districts for electing members of the General Assembly to go into effect for the July 19 primary elections without further delay. The filing deadline for candidates wishing to appear on the ballot is Friday at 9 p.m.
原告主要声称，地图上大约有十几个地区是不规则的跨河流或县线的形状或编织的，以违反州宪法规定的方式。宪法要求立法区紧凑，并要求立法者尊重自然地理边界和政治分区（例如县或城市）的边界，同时绘制地图。
But Alan M. Wilner, a retired Court of Appeals judge appointed to oversee the case, had recommended在冗长的报告中filed last week upholding the General Assembly’s maps and rejecting the Republican lawsuits. Wilner had heard extensive expert testimony about the mapsduring a two-day hearingin late March.
His recommendation was considered by the appeals court before it ruled after a Wednesday hearing.
威尔纳在他的建议中写道：“紧凑显然是一个重要元素，在某些情况下，由于其与曼德斯的联系，可能是既有态度的。但这不是唯一的要素，从历史上看，这被认为是其他考虑因素的约束。”
他写道，这些考虑因素包括确保地区人口平等，并遵守《联邦投票权法》，禁止与选举有关的歧视。
一组原告包括Calvert县的共和党国会代表马克·费舍尔（Mark Fisher），安妮·阿伦德尔县的尼克·基普克（Nic Kipke）和代表哈尔福德（Harford）和巴尔的摩县（Baltimore）县的部分地区的凯西·塞利加（Kathy Szeliga）。同时听到了其他挑战，包括州议员提出的另一个挑战。
那些共和党的代表和其他人指责民主党人，他们控制了重新划分程序并在大会的两个议会中拥有广泛的多数，他们偏向地图，使他们的党派在选举中具有优势。
马里兰州公平地图马里兰州是一个与原告在案件中保持一致的倡导组织，他对威尔纳的结论提出了质疑，但高等法院不同意，发现该地图“与美国宪法和马里兰州宪法的要求一致”。
法院发布了五页的命令，并表示将在稍后的意见中给出其理由。
“马里兰州的历史不会记得这一天，”公平地图发言人道格·梅耶（Doug Mayer）在周三晚上发表的一份声明中说。“产生违宪国会地图的有毒过程也产生了宪法立法地图的想法是不可想象的。”
“We appreciate the Court of Appeals recognizing the General Assembly followed the Maryland and U.S. Constitutions when drawing a new state map,” House Speaker Adrienne Jones and Senate President Bill Ferguson said in a joint statement. “Democracy has been well served today.”
About four hours before Wednesday’s ruling was made public, the lawyers seeking to overturn the new legislative districts appeared before the Court of Appeals to ask that it reject Wilner’s recommendations and strike down the map. A panel of seven judges heard the case, one via video.
A victory in the legal challenges, would have forced a hasty redrawing of the electoral lines and could have upended plans for Maryland’s already delayed primary.
选举官员警告in a legal filing on Monday上诉法院抛弃立法地图将使他们在7月初选之前实施任何更改的时间太少。州选举委员会还警告说，在8月16日晚些时候推迟初选将危害11月8日大选的计划。
During the arguments, which lasted 2 1/2 hours, three sets of lawyers suing to overturn the maps reiterated their contentions that Democratic lawmakers ran afoul of the state constitution while crafting the boundaries.
两起诉讼共同指出，大约有十几个地区为代表众议院的席位吸引了座位，竞争着延伸成奇数形状的线路，在没有桥梁的河流上跳过河流，或者应将其视为非法。另一项诉讼挑战了马里兰州的长期做法，即为代表众议院使用较小的单人和较大的跨成员区，称这是对一个由单一代表代表的选民不公平的对待选民。
Assistant Attorney General Ann Sheridan, who defended the maps on behalf of the legislature, countered that the mandate for map drawers to give “due regard” to boundaries like county and city lines is just one of several competing requirements. Sheridan said the legal challengers hadn’t offered enough proof that lawmakers overstepped when crafting the map.
谢里登（Sheridan）在上诉法院击落了民主党州长帕里斯·格伦德宁（Parris Glendening）提出的地图后，一再指出2002年上诉法院绘制的大会区。谢里登说的那张地图是在没有党派政治影响的情况下被绘制的，严格遵循宪法要求，其中包括许多越过县线的奇特形状的地区。它还使用了多组成员和单人区。
马里兰州政策与政治
Sheridan contended that the map approved by the General Assembly in December was largely based on district lines crafted in 2012 that withstood repeated legal challenges, with most changes necessitated by population changes in different parts of the state.
马里兰州Republicans had scored separate a legal victory earlier this year in legal challenges to proposal new congressional district lines, also approved by the General Assembly, that would have strengthened the Democratic Party’s hold on seven of the state’s eight U.S. House seats.
Judge Lynne A. Battaglia, a retired Court of Appeals judge appointed to handle those cases, struck down that map as unconstitutional and called it “extreme partisan gerrymandering” by Democrats.
马里兰州Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, initially planned to appeal Battaglia’s decision, but dropped the appeal after Republican Gov. Larry Hogan agreed to sign off on another congressional map passed by Democrats in the General Assembly. The final map appears to still favor Democrats, but gives Republicans a much better shot at holding one congressional seat and possibly challenging for another.
Battaglia was a judge on the Court of Appeals in 2002 when it struck down the General Assembly’s legislative map and crafted its own. Getty, the current chief judge, was a Republican state delegate at the time and was among the plaintiffs behind the successful lawsuit.
马里兰州有47名州参议员，每个参议员都有自己的地区，还有141位代表。
www.my188.com巴尔的摩太阳记者杰夫·巴克（Jeff Barker）和艾米丽·奥皮洛（Emily Opilo）为这篇文章做出了贡献。