WASHINGTON — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that he will sign an amicus brief in a Supreme Court redistricting case.
In a Thursday afternoon news conference, Hogan said he will join former California Gov. Gray Davis — a Democrat — in signing what’s known as a friend-of-the-court brief in a Supreme Court case. Plaintiffs in Benisek v. Lamone argue that Maryland’s congressional-redistricting process violated the First Amendment rights of a group of seven Republican voters in the state.
Maryland’s been singled out “for having some of the worst, most-gerrymandered and unfair congressional districts in the nation,” Hogan said, “and our state legislative districts are even worse.” Gerrymandering is the term used to describe how congressional and legislative districts are drawn to give one party an advantage.
“Of course, Maryland is not the only offender when it comes to gerrymandering, and no party has a monopoly on this practice,” said Hogan, a Republican in a heavily Democratic state.
But Hogan then excoriated the former governor, Democrat Martin O’Malley, who conceded in a deposition that the 6th Congressional District was redrawn in an effort to boost the chances of a Democrat to win the seat that had been held by Republican Roscoe Bartlett.
The governor took a swipe at Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, saying he was going ahead and signing the amicus brief in the Supreme Court case himself.
“Sadly, Maryland’s attorney general is on the wrong side of this fight and on the wrong side of history” in the case, Hogan said.
The governor lamented that he couldn’t compel Frosh to sign the brief, but Frosh’s director of communications, Raquel Coombs, explained that as the state’s attorney general, Frosh is bound by the constitution to defend state law.
Hogan added that he’s introducing legislation that would establish a nonpartisan commission to redraw state legislative districts. It’s the third year in a row that the governor’s submitted the bill.
“In Maryland, we can no longer accept the status quo,” he said.
