U.S. House map’s foes greeted skeptically

Panel of federal judges doubt claims at hearing

Conservative activists received a frosty reception from a three-judge panel in Baltimore Tuesday as they sought to scrap Maryland’s bitterly disputed congressional district map.

The federal judges peppered a lawyer for the challengers with skeptical questions as they considered a motion by the State Board of Elections to dismiss the lawsuit.

The panel did not rule on the motion but expressed doubts about the plaintiffs’ constitutional assertions and their legal standing to bring the suit in the first place.

The plaintiffs — led by a trio of prominent Republicans — sued last year in the latest of several efforts to throw out the congressional map and force the General Assembly to draw a new one. They are represented by lawyers from the conservative legal group Judicial Watch.

Robert Popper, senior attorney for Judicial Watch, acknowledged that there’s no case law that says lawmakers can’t take politics into account when drawing district lines. But he called on the court to rule that the current lines are so egregiously convoluted that they must be ruled invalid. T.J. Smith, chief spokesman for the “We don’t want maximally compact. Baltimore Police Department, said it can be We want minimally compact,” he told difficult for officers to distinguish between the judges. real and fake weapons — especially in When Circuit Judge Paul V. Niemeyer high-pressure situations. told him to “articulate your standard” for

“The only way you can really find out that compact districts, Popper urged the one is real and one isn’t is when you’re on panel to fashion its own. Neither Niethe receiving end,” said Smith, who apmeyer nor his colleagues, District Judges plauded efforts by Nell and others to James K. Bredar and George Levi remove gun toys from stores. Russell III, displayed any enthusiasm for

“They truly serve no purpose in having doing so. fun,” Smith said, “and certainly can lead to Niemeyer also questioned Popper misunderstandings.” sharply about whom Judicial Watch was

Abdul Salaam, deputy director of KEYS claiming to represent. Popper said the Development, a nonprofit mental health plaintiffs were suing on behalf of all organization, was among those petitioning Marylanders — especially those in the shop owners to remove toy guns from their six of eight districts he claimed were shelves. impermissibly gerrymandered.

“We have to take as many precautionary “It could be every voter in the state is measures as possible,” Salaam said. hurt,” Popper said. He argued that

Bob Terry, owner of Texas-based toy gun lawmakers were in effect choosing their manufacturer Wild West Toys, said he voters rather than letting voters choose doesn’t believe toy firearms lead to violence. their lawmakers. Television shows should be taken into Niemeyer dismissed the arguments as account as well, he said, as some compel “meaningless under the Constitution.” children to simulate violence. The judge said there’s nothing in that

“I don’t think it’s any issue to do with toy document that says voters are “entitled guns,” Terry said. “I think it’s an issue to do to live in a district free of manipulation.” with a mindset of our society.” Jeff Darsie, an assistant attorney

“The whole world seems to have gone general representing the elections mad,” he said. board, urged the judges to dismiss the proached him with the same request. Salaam noted that stores stopped selling case. He called it “only a generalized

“They said: ‘It’s killing our kids,’ ” Ahmed candy cigarettes years ago, and he and grievance about the operation of governsaid. “I respect that, and I’m not going to sell others want toy guns off the shelves for the ment.” any.” same reason. He said it’s a matter not only of The plaintiffs in the case include

Nell said he and others are motivated in protecting children from accidental conRepublican Dels. Neil C. Parrott of large part by the fatal police shootings of frontations, but also preventing them from Washington County and Matt Morgan of Tamir Rice and Dedric Colvin. becoming desensitized to violence. St. Mary’s County, as well as former

Tamir Rice, 12, was fatally shot by a police “It’s conditioning,” Salaam said. “The House minority leader and GOP guberofficer in Cleveland in November 2014. more you’re used to playing with or natorial candidate Ellen R. Sauerbrey. Tamir was playing with a pellet gun. The handling guns, the more you feel like you The judges did not say when they will gun’s orange safety tip — meant to disneed one.” rule. tinguish replica guns from real firearms — Nell has documented the group’s efforts Maryland has been identified as one had been removed. on social media and his posts have been of the most heavily gerrymandered

In April, a Baltimore police detective shot shared widely, encouraging others to states in the nation, with the state’s 3rd Dedric Colvin in Southeast Baltimore. undertake similar initiatives in Baltimore Congressional District often ranking in Dedric, then in the eighth grade, was and elsewhere. Salaam said they intend to the nation’s top two for its lack of carrying a spring-air-powered BB gun that petition more stores in the city. compactness. officers mistook for a real pistol. “If our vision comes to fruition, this will After the 2010 Census, Gov. Martin

In the wake of Dedric’s shooting, some be a nationwide movement that we are O’Malley and the Democratic-domistate lawmakers said they would renew a implementing,” Salaam said. nated General Assembly set out to push to ban replica guns in Maryland. “We’re going to start right here in maximize their party’s strength in the Similar efforts in the state have been Baltimore.” U.S. House delegation by packing as unsuccessful in the past. many Republicans as they could into the 1st District and artfully distributing GOP voters to retain a Democratic advantage in every other district.

The effort succeeded in 2012, when Democrat John Delaney succeeded in wresting the previously Republican 6th District held by longtime U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett to turn the Democrats’ previous 6-2 advantage in Maryland into a 7-1 majority.

To prevail, the map had to survive challenges both in the courts and at the polls.

A three-judge panel of U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in December 2011 that the map was legal. The panel rejected a challenge to the map on the grounds that it discriminated against African-Americans, but the judges delivered blistering descriptions of the resulting districts.

Niemeyer, writing for the panel, said the 3rd District was “reminiscent of a broken-winged pterodactyl, lying prostrate across the center of the state.”

Nevertheless, the panel said that the Supreme Court had ruled that the Constitution does not require “regularity of district shape.”

Republicans took another shot at the map in 2012 when they gathered enough petition signatures to challenge it in a referendum. They fell short of persuading enough voters to reject it. Baltimore City firefighters remain on the scene of a two-alarm fire in the 2700 block of Fenwick Ave., where six vacant rowhouses were ablaze when units were dispatched at 6 a.m. One firefighter received minor injuries. Dominic Nell, a photographer and community activist from Sandtown-Winchester, is concerned that toy guns mistaken for real ones will lead to more killings.