By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
“These are the same people who want to set the law aside, who are constantly telling us how we're a nation of laws, we need to follow the law, we all need to have this fidelity to the law. And then when they want something they can't get in the ordinary way, they want to toss the law out. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.” - Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Robert J. Thompson, on the legislature’s rushed approval of a proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting.
A lot going on in courts in today’s headlines, and more disturbing measles news from neighboring Pennsylvania. Happy Hump Day.
With less than a week until ballots have to be certified, an Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge gave a fast-track hearing Tuesday to a Republican lawsuit that aims to block a planned constitutional amendment on redistricting that could go on that ballot. Judge Robert Thompson is scheduled to release his ruling today, and his comments during Tuesday’s hearing gave hope to the GOP plaintiffs, as Bryan P. Sears reports.
The Maryland Supreme Court, meanwhile, quietly declined to hear an appeal from Lee Boyd Malvo, who pleaded guilty to six murder counts in Maryland for his part in the D.C. sniper case that terrorized the Washington area in 2002. Malvo is serving six consecutive sentences of life without parole and wants his sentence vacated, because he was a minor when he committed the crimes — but courts here can’t take action because officials in Virginia refuse to hand him over until he finishes four life sentences there for murders in the commonwealth. Danielle J. Brown has that story.
Just over the border to the north, meanwhile, the first two measles-related deaths in the country have been confirmed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. That and other headlines for the week are below. Enjoy!
Del. Matt Morgan (R-St. Mary’s), left, and other Republicans were optimistic after a daylong hearing challenging a proposed amendment to the Maryland Constitution on congressional redistricting. Morgan is a plaintiff in the lawsuit along with Del. Ryan Nawrocki (R-Baltimore County) and Mike Howell, right, president of the Oversight Project. (Photo Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
By Bryan P, Sears
The Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge overseeing a legal challenge to a proposed constitutional amendment on redistricting said Tuesday there are a "couple things that trouble me about this case."
The comments by Circuit Judge Robert J. Thompson came at the end of a daylong hearing of a Republican lawsuit challenging the amendment, passed earlier this month in a special legislative session and slated to go to voters in November. The comments left Republicans hopeful and Democrats characterizing his ruling as a jump ball at this point.
"When all of this lawmaking authority, at least statutory lawmaking authority, rests in one branch of the government, and that branch of the government wants to do something that its own laws that it enacted don't allow or don't make easy to do, you can just say, 'Well, you know, we won't follow those laws.' That doesn't seem right to me,” Thompson said of the legislature’s approval of the constitutional amendment ballot question. He said he originally planned to have a ruling by Tuesday, but instead would rule by Wednesday.
The case filed in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court is one of two legal challenges to House Bill 2100, a proposed amendment to the Maryland Constitution that could go to voters in November. A second lawsuit, filed in Dorchester County, has yet to be scheduled for a hearing. Both cases are expected to head to the Supreme Court of Maryland. Election officials are staring at a deadline of Aug. 31 to certify the roughly 1,200 ballot variations that will be presented to voters across the state Nov. 3.
The Maryland Courts of Appeals Building in Annapolis. (File photo by Bennett Leckrone/Maryland Matters)
By Danielle J. Brown
The Maryland Supreme Court declined to hear Lee Boyd Malvo's attempt to withdraw his guilty plea to six counts of first-degree murder in the D.C. sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington area for three weeks in 2002.
The court, without comment Friday, let stand lower court rulings that said Malvo is not entitled to have those charges vacated because of an impasse between Maryland and Virginia. That impasse, in which Virginia is refusing to hand over Malvo until he serves four consecutive life sentences for murders there, means Malvo cannot have a resentencing hearing in Maryland that had been ordered the by Maryland Supreme Court.
Malvo’s attorneys said he would not appear via video conference for a resentencing hearing and argued that, since Maryland could not arrange for Malvo to be physically present for a resentencing, he was essentially being denied a hearing and he was entitled to have his sentences vacated. But lower courts instead issued a detainer for Malvo to be turned over to Maryland after he completes his Virginia sentences.
Malvo was 17 in 2002 when he and John Allen Muhammad, who was then 41, killed 10 people and injured others over the course of three weeks in a series of random attacks in the D.C. area. Victims were pumping gas, waiting for the bus, cutting grass, going to school and other routine activities when they were shot with a high-powered rifle from the back of a modified car. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the crimes, Malvo was sentenced to life without parole — four times in Virginia and six in Maryland — to be serve consecutively. Muhammad was sentenced to death and executed by Virginia in 2009.
IN OTHER NEWS
Measles deaths confirmed in Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania health officials confirmed two measles-related deaths in Lancaster County, the first two such deaths in the U.S. this year, according to the CDC. Both people were unvaccinated.
A delay on math rules: The Maryland State Board of Education delayed a requirement that all school districts include 60 minutes of math instruction daily for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Schools now have until fall 2028 to make the change.
Trump vouches for vouchers: President Donald Trump touted a national school voucher program that starts next year that will allocate federal tax credits up to $1,700 for people who give to groups providing private and religious school scholarships.
Explosion explained: The owner of the Cape St. Claire home that exploded last week accidentally cut a propane line while working on the HVAC system, investigators say, triggering a blast that left one woman dead and the homeowner in “serious condition.”
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Yurt alert: The yurts are open for business. Gates officially open Friday at Maryland’s newest state park, Savage Highlands, with rooms -- and yurts -- for rent, unlocking some 55,000 acres of Western Maryland woodlands outside of Frostburg for public use..
Measles outbreak confirmed in three counties: Maryland is declaring a measles outbreak in St. Mary's, Carroll and Cecil counties as cases continue to rise across the state, highlighting the importance of getting immunized, health experts say.
Mail-in ballot battle: With just over two months to the November midterms, the U.S. Supreme Court said President Donald Trump can proceed — for now — with his plan to regulate mail-in ballots nationwide through U.S. Postal Service regulations.
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