Today, the United States Supreme Court held that they do not have the jurisdiction to rule on partisan gerrymandering cases and overturned a lower court decision indicating that District 6 was illegal and needed to be redrawn.
Delegate Parrott indicated that, “I am disappointed that Western Maryland will not be made whole sooner than 2020. We haven’t had fair representation in DC since 2012 and today’s decision does not help. When someone simply looks at Maryland’s districts, you can see that they were gerrymandered. That is why I helped lead the MD Petitions referendum effort to have Marylander’s vote on the map, and why I partnered with Judicial Watch in another lawsuit against the map in 2015.”
Delegate Parrott indicated, “It is time for the Maryland Legislature to take action and create fair and balanced districting standards that will allow voters to pick their legislators and not the other way around. That is why during the 2019 Legislative Session I introduced HJ 3, which would require Maryland’s Congressional Districts to follow the Maryland Constitution which indicates that, “Each legislative district shall consist of adjoining territory, be compact in form, and of substantially equal population. Due regard shall be given to natural boundaries and the boundaries of political subdivisions.”
In his amicus brief for the Supreme Court case, Congressman David Trone called Maryland’s districts “perfectly satisfactory.” In response Delegate Parrott stated, “The districts are not ‘satisfactory.’ Judge Niemeyer even stated that Maryland’s 3rd District is ‘reminiscent of a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state.’ The case may have only been about the 6th district, but all of Maryland’s districts are gerrymandered. In addition,” Delegate Parrott continued, “Former Governor Martin O’Malley, even admitted to gerrymandering the State in order to affect election results.”
“For the past 9 years, Western Maryland’s voice has been ignored, because of the partisan gerrymander that Governor Martin O’Malley spearheaded.” Delegate Parrott said, “Today’s decision enables the Democrat abuse of power to remain for another election cycle. I am grateful for the good work that Governor Hogan has done to try to fix Maryland’s districts and am thankful that he plans to continue asking for redistricting reform in Maryland to create a fair, balanced, and nonpartisan commission to draw the districts for the 2020 census and into the future.”