Supreme Court Revives Challenge to Maryland Congressional Map

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Tuesday revived a lawsuit contesting Maryland’s congressional-district map in a ruling giving challengers a chance to argue that extreme partisan redistricting is unconstitutional.

The court, in a short unanimous opinion by Justice Antonin Scalia, ruled lower courts were too quick to dismiss a legal challenge arguing that Maryland Democrats engaged in unconstitutional political gerrymandering in the way they drew the state’s congressional map in 2011.

After the 2010 census, then-Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat now seeking the presidential nomination, and his allies substantially reconfigured the state’s congressional districts to shift a Republican-held seat into the Democratic column. A group of state residents who challenged the map claim it was the most gerrymandered in the nation.

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