Legislative Redistricting Trial Opens With GOP Expert Decrying Lack of Compactness

The Maryland Constitution requires that legislative districts be compact and respect natural and political boundaries. Whether the state’s recently passed legislative redistricting plan complies with those requirements was a key question when a trial to overturn the new map kicked off Wednesday. All four petitions filed against the map enacted by lawmakers in January argue that some of the new district lines violate Article III, Section 4 of the Maryland Constitution. That provision stipulates that legislative districts “shall consist of adjoining territory, be compact in form, and of substantially equal population” and respect natural and political boundaries.