Benisek v. Lamone

• Decision Date: 07 November 2018
• Docket Number: Case No. 1:13-cv-03233-JKB
• Citation: 348 F.Supp.3d 493
• Parties: O. John BENISEK, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Linda H. LAMONE, et al., Defendants. Common Cause; The Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law; The Campaign Legal Center, Inc., Amici Supporting Plaintiffs.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

348 F.Supp.3d 493

O. John BENISEK, et al., Plaintiffs,

v. Linda H. LAMONE, et al., Defendants.Common Cause; The Brennan Center for Justice at N.Y.U. School of Law; The Campaign Legal Center, Inc., Amici Supporting Plaintiffs.

Case No. 1:13-cv-03233-JKB

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

Decided: November 7, 2018

Argued: October 4, 2018

MEMORANDUM OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge

The plaintiffs in this action — seven registered Republican voters who lived in Maryland's Sixth Congressional District prior to the State's enactment of its 2011 congressional redistricting law — challenge the constitutionality of that law and, specifically, the way the State redrew the boundaries of the Sixth District. See Md. Code Ann., Elec. Law § 8-701 et seq . They contend that in enacting the law, State officials specifically intended to burden Republicans with the overarching goal of achieving a state delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives of seven Democrats and one Republican, as distinct from the previous six Democrats and two Republicans. To do so, the officials targeted Republican voters in the Sixth District by, on net, removing roughly 66,000 of them from the district and adding some 24,000 Democratic voters, thereby effecting a swing of about 90,000 voters and bringing about the single greatest alteration of voter makeup in any district in the Nation following the 2010 census. The plaintiffs point out that before the redistricting, experts regarded the Sixth District as "Solid Republican" and after redistricting, as "Likely Democratic." Based on these factual allegations, the plaintiffs argue that in enacting the 2011 law, the State deliberately diluted their votes and burdened their associational interests based on their party affiliation and voting history, in violation of their First Amendment rights.

The parties have conducted and completed extensive discovery, and neither the plaintiffs nor the State has requested any more. Moreover, no party disputes the material facts in the record, although the parties do dispute the legal consequences that flow from them. Following discovery, the plaintiffs filed a motion for summary judgment, and the State filed a cross-motion for summary judgment.

This court conducted a lengthy hearing on the cross-motions for summary judgment on October 4, 2018, and now, for the reasons given herein, the court grants the plaintiffs' motion and denies the State's motion. The record shows that:

• The State specifically targeted voters in the Sixth Congressional District who were registered as Republicans and who had historically voted for Republican candidates.

• The State specifically intended to diminish the value of those targeted citizens' votes by removing a substantial number of them from the Sixth District and replacing them with Democratic voters for the purpose of denying, as a practical matter, the targeted voters the opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice.

• The State gave effect to its intent by, on net, removing about 66,000 Republican voters from the Sixth District and adding 24,000 Democratic voters in their place.

• The State meaningfully burdened the targeted Republican voters' representational rights by substantially diminishing their ability to elect their candidate of choice.

• The State also burdened the Republican voters' right of association, as demonstrated by voter confusion, diminished participation in Republican organizational efforts in the Sixth District, and diminished Republican participation in voting, as well as decreased Republican fundraising.

• These injuries were the direct result of the State's purpose to convert the Sixth District from a solid Republican district to a Democratic district.

We thus conclude that the plaintiffs have sufficiently demonstrated that Maryland's 2011 redistricting law violates the First Amendment by burdening both the plaintiffs' representational rights and associational rights based on their party affiliation and voting history. Because the plaintiffs also satisfy the requirements for injunctive relief, we enter a judgment permanently enjoining the State from using the 2011 congressional redistricting plan after the 2018 congressional election and requiring it promptly to adopt a new plan in conformance with this Memorandum Opinion for use in the 2020 congressional elections.

I. FACTS OF RECORD

A

The facts of record are not disputed. Following the 2010 decennial census, the State of Maryland redrew the lines of its 8 congressional districts and its 47 state legislative districts, as required to equalize the population in each district. In particular, the census showed that the Sixth Congressional District had grown somewhat since the prior census, having 10,186 more residents than the ideal adjusted population of 721,529 for a Maryland congressional district, a variation of 1.4%. Joint Stipulations ¶¶ 9, 52 (ECF No. 104). Thus, Maryland was required to remove a net of 10,186 residents from the Sixth District to achieve the required equal population for the District. With such a modest adjustment, however, the Sixth District would have remained a solid Republican district, which, together with the First District on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, would have given Maryland two reliably Republican districts.

Since 1966, the Sixth District had always been configured to include all of Maryland's five most northwestern counties — Garrett, Allegany, Washington, Frederick, and Carroll Counties. See Expert Report of John T. Willis at 9 & app. A, maps 11–15 (ECF No. 186-17). After the 2002 redistricting, the District included this identifiable core of five counties, as well as a small pocket of northern Montgomery County and larger portions of Baltimore and Harford Counties, shown as follows:

At the time of the 2010 congressional election — the last held prior to the 2011 redistricting — 47% of the Sixth District's approximately 446,000 registered voters were registered as Republicans, 36% were registered as Democrats, and 16% were registered as Unaffiliated, making the District the most Republican in the State. Joint Stipulations ¶ 10 & Ex. 2 at 2. Representative Roscoe Bartlett, a Republican, had continuously represented the District since 1993, and he won reelection in 2010 by a margin of 28%. Id. ¶ 8.

In creating the 2011 redistricting plan, the Democratic officials responsible for the plan redrew the Sixth District's boundaries far more dramatically than was necessary to remove 10,186 residents from the District. Under their plan, the Sixth District retained only one-half of its original population (specifically, the residents of Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties, as well as roughly half the population of Frederick County). The other half of the former Sixth District's population — roughly 360,000 residents — was moved to other districts. Approximately 60% of those removed — those from Frederick County and more than half the population of Carroll County — were shifted into the Eighth Congressional District, which had previously been confined almost entirely to Montgomery County. In place of those residents, the plan added to the new Sixth District approximately 350,000 residents from Montgomery County — the majority of whom had previously been assigned to the Eighth District. The exchange thus involved over 700,000 residents. The final 2011 redistricting map for the Sixth District is shown as follows:

The new Eighth District is shown as follows:

Finally, the map as a whole is shown as follows:

The registered voters removed from the former Sixth District were predominately Republican, while those added were predominately Democratic. Specifically, in the precincts removed from the Sixth District, there were on average approximately 1.5 times as many registered Republicans as Democrats. By contrast, in the precincts added to Sixth District, registered Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 2 to 1. In total, the reshuffling of the Sixth District's voters resulted in a net reduction of roughly 66,000 registered Republicans and a net increase of some 24,000 registered Democrats, for a swing of about 90,000 voters. See Opening Expert Report of Prof. Michael P. McDonald at 5, 11–12 (ECF No. 177-19); Opening Expert Report of Dr. Peter A. Morrison ¶ 134 & tbl. 1 (ECF No. 177-35). Thus, of the new Sixth District's roughly 437,000 registered voters, 33% were registered as Republicans, 44% were registered as Democrats, and 22% were registered as Unaffiliated. Joint Stipulations ¶ 53 & Ex. 19 at 2. And, in the new Sixth District, Democratic candidate John Delaney defeated Republican incumbent Bartlett by a 21% margin in the 2012 election. Id. ¶ 54. Delaney was narrowly reelected in 2014 with a margin of 1.5% but then won the 2016 election by a margin of 14%. Id. ¶ 55–56.

The Eighth District, to which the State had shifted the bulk of the Sixth District's removed voters, continued to be a reliable seat for Democrats. Prior to redistricting, registered Democratic voters outnumbered registered Republican voters in the Eighth District by almost 3 to 1 — 58% were Democrats, 20% were Republicans, and 21% were Unaffiliated. Joint Stipulations Ex. 2 at 2. After the redistricting, 51% of the registered voters were Democrats, 27% were Republicans, and 21% were Unaffiliated. Id. Ex. 19 at 2. Thus, even though the number of registered Republicans in the Eighth District rose significantly after the transfer of Republicans from the Sixth District, registered Democrats still outnumbered registered Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

The record shows that this readjustment of the voter composition of the Sixth District was specifically intended by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat; by the Maryland General Assembly, controlled by Democrats; and by the Democratic members of Maryland's congressional delegation to achieve a 7 to 1 Democratic majority in Maryland's delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives.

As was the custom — and...