Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/18pdf/18-422_9ol1.pdf
Page Number: 44

Cite as:  588 U. S. ____ (2019) 

5 

KAGAN, J., dissenting 

lican congressional candidates won 10 of North Carolina’s 
13 seats, with 53% of the statewide vote.  Two years later,
Republican  candidates  won  9  of  12  seats  though  they 
received only 50% of the vote.  (The 13th seat has not yet 
been filled because fraud tainted the initial election.) 

Events  in  Maryland  make  for  a  similarly  grisly  tale. 
For  50  years,  Maryland’s  8-person  congressional  delega-
tion  typically  consisted  of  2  or  3  Republicans  and  5  or  6
Democrats.   After  the  2000  districting,  for  example,  the
First and Sixth Districts reliably elected Republicans, and 
the  other  districts  as  reliably  elected  Democrats.    See  R. 
Cohen & J. Barnes, Almanac of American Politics 2016, p.
836  (2015).    But  in  the  2010  districting  cycle,  the  State’s
Democratic  leaders,  who  controlled  the  governorship  and 
both  houses  of  the  General  Assembly,  decided  to  press
their advantage. 

  Governor  Martin  O’Malley,  who  oversaw  the  pro-
cess,  decided  (in  his  own  later  words)  “to  create  a 
map  that  was  more  favorable  for  Democrats  over 
the next ten years.”  Because flipping the First Dis-
trict was geographically next-to-impossible, “a deci-
sion was made to go for the Sixth.”  Benisek v. La-
mone, 348 F. Supp. 3d 493, 502 (Md. 2018) (quoting 
O’Malley; emphasis deleted). 

  O’Malley  appointed  an  advisory  committee  as  the 
public face of his effort, while asking Congressman 
Steny  Hoyer,  a  self-described  “serial  gerryman-
derer,” to hire and direct a mapmaker.  Id., at 502. 
Hoyer retained Eric Hawkins, an analyst at a polit-
ical  consulting  firm  providing  services  to  Demo-
crats.  See id., at 502–503. 

  Hawkins  received  only  two  instructions:  to  ensure 
that  the  new  map  produced  7  reliable  Democratic