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Judges Order Maryland To Redraw Congressional Districts

Maryland's Democratic leadership redrew the 6th congressional district in 2011.

Judges Order Maryland To Redraw Congressional Districts
Maryland Department of Planning

Maryland unconstitutionally gerrymandered one of its congressional districts in favor of Democrats. That's the ruling a panel of federal judges handed down on Wednesday

When the state leadership redrew Maryland's electoral map in 2011, it removed some 60,000 registered Republicans from the state's sixth congressional district and added more than 20,000 registered Democrats.

In subsequent elections, the district elected and then re-elected Democratic Rep. John Delaney to the U.S. House of Representatives, prompting a lawsuit from Republicans in the district. 

Now, according to the judges' ruling, the state must redraw the district more fairly, and it has four months to do so. Maryland's newly re-elected Republican governor Larry Hogan called the ruling "a victory" for Marylanders.