On August 6, the Maryland Freedom Caucus – joined by Mike Howell, President of the Oversight Project, Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, and Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready – filed suit in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. The case is Howell & Morgan v. Maryland State Board of Elections and names the State Board of Elections, Governor Wes Moore, Attorney General Anthony Brown, Elections Administrator Jared DeMarinis, and Secretary of State Susan Lee as defendants.
Democrats’ House Bill 2100, rammed through during a short special session August 3rd and 4th and symbollically signed by Governor Moore, would place a constitutional amendment on the November ballot. If approved, it would strip away longstanding requirements that congressional districts be compact and respect natural boundaries and political subdivisions – standards a court applied in 2022 when it struck down a previous extreme partisan gerrymander. The clear goal is an 8–0 Democratic map that erases Rep. Andy Harris’s district and disenfranchises almost the entire Eastern Shore.
Blatantly Missed Deadlines
Maryland law requires statewide ballot questions to be certified by July 1, with public notice and a 15-day comment period. The full text of a proposed constitutional amendment must be posted at least 90 days before Election Day. These rules exist to protect voters’ due process rights so the public has time to understand what they are being asked to decide and the requirements were signed into law by the governor just 3 months ago.
Democrats blew past every one of those deadlines. Then, less than an hour before a joint committee hearing, they inserted the phrase “notwithstanding any other provision of law” in a transparent attempt to paper over their failure.
As Delegate Matt Morgan, Chair of the Maryland Freedom Caucus, stated:
“Annapolis Democrats spent taxpayer dollars on a special session for one reason: to rewrite the Maryland Constitution and eliminate the last remaining Republican congressional seat. Like a banana republic, they suspended the rules, ignored statutory deadlines, and treated the Constitution as an obstacle to be removed.”
Vice Chair Delegate Kathy Szeliga, who was lead plaintiff in the earlier successful challenge to Democrat gerrymandering, added:
“Four years ago, I was the lead plaintiff when Judge Lynne Battaglia struck down the Democrats’ extreme partisan gerrymander. Today, the Maryland Freedom Caucus is once again leading the fight to stop them from changing the rules midstream. The process matters. We will not let them rewrite the Constitution on a rushed, defective timeline and without due process.”
The Oversight Project’s REPAIR Initiative—created to fight unlawful redistricting schemes nationwide—joined the suit because election laws must mean something. Marshall Yates, head of REPAIR, put it plainly in recent interviews: Democrats passed the July 1 deadline law themselves earlier this year, then decided the law no longer applied when it became inconvenient. You cannot wave a “notwithstanding” wand and erase due process for political convenience.
The amendment does not redraw maps for 2026. It is designed to clear the legal path for a new map in time for 2028 that would extinguish Republican representation on the Eastern Shore. Mike Howell of the Oversight Project captured what is at stake:
“Maryland can be great again but not if the plan is to turn the Eastern Shore into Baltimore and Prince George’s County. The Governor and his radicals want to impose insane policies on the good people of the Eastern Shore through extinguishing their congressional representation.”
We asked the court for expedited review and a preliminary injunction to prevent this defective measure from appearing on the November ballot. A hearing has now been set for August 25. With ballots scheduled to begin printing soon, the window to protect the integrity of the process is closing quickly.
Both the law and the statutory deadlines governing ballot placement were unambiguous. The Democrats’ decision to ignore them in order to eliminate the last remaining Republican congressional seat was equally unambiguous.
The Maryland Freedom Caucus has opposed this power grab from the moment it was announced. We will not stand by while Annapolis Democrats treat the Constitution and the voters of Maryland as obstacles to be removed. The principles of legislative process, due process, and free and fair elections are not negotiable.
We will see them in court on August 25.
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