Maryland – Nearly four years after Bethesda, Md. resident Stephen M. Shapiro and other Maryland voters filed a partisan gerrymandering lawsuit against Maryland’s congressional district map, a judge has ordered the Speaker of the Maryland House of Delegates and the President of the Maryland Senate to testify in the case and turn over documents, rejecting claims of legislative privilege.
Shapiro’s case has wound its way through the courts from its initial filing in 2013, you can read the original complaint here. A district court judge dismissed the case but Shapiro won his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the U.S. Constitution “clearly” states that gerrymandering cases such as these are entitled to a three judge panel. The lawsuit is now going forward, and this latest order is a blow to the legal concept of legislative privilege.
