REDISTRICTING CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO GO TO VOTERS: In a 32-13 vote, the Maryland Senate on Tuesday passed the constitutional amendment that could change how future maps are drawn. The measure’s passage comes after the state House spent hours debating Monday night. The proposal would remove constitutional language requiring congressional districts to be connected, reasonably shaped and drawn with consideration for existing geographic boundaries. Tinashe Chingarande/The Baltimore Sun.
- The amendment also temporarily resolves Maryland’s participation in the national redistricting tug-of-war between red and blue states that are hoping to influence control of Congress. That nine-month fight divided Democrats, frayed relationships and drew national attention to — and put pressure on — the state. With three months before voters have a chance to weigh in, here’s what we’ll be watching for next. Brenda Wintrode and Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
- The final vote, just after 6 p.m., capped a two-day summertime special session that was called as Democratic leaders face continued pressure to help their party gain seats in Congress. The outcome of the session was never really in doubt: Democrats hold a supermajority that means they can pass anything they want if they stick together. Pamela Wood and Brenda Wintrode/The Baltimore Banner.
- Here’s the Fox5 Washington story.
LAWSUITS PLANNED TO CHALLENGE REDISTRICTING REFERENDUM: Outside organizations plan to file lawsuits this week challenging Maryland’s congressional redistricting referendum, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris said on Tuesday. The legal challenges will center on Republican claims that Democratic lawmakers didn’t comply with state law when placing the measure on the November ballot after a three-day special session. Mennatalla Ibrahim/The Baltimore Sun.
- “We’re going to try to get this into the court as soon as we possibly can to try to put any type of delay that we can,” said Senate Minority Leader Stephen S. Hershey Jr. Hershey and Senate Minority Whip Sen. Justin Ready said time is of the essence: The measure has to be to state elections officials Wednesday to make the November ballot. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
CHILD SEX ABUSE CLAIMS AGAINST STATE COULD COST BILLIONS: As Maryland lawmakers returned to the capital this week to rewrite the state’s congressional redistricting rules, many challenges were left off the narrow agenda, including another issue carrying far greater financial consequences — a potential multibillion-dollar liability stemming from more than 12,000 child sexual abuse claims against the state. Gary Collins/The Baltimore Sun.
NEW COMMISSION ON CHELTENHAM YOUTH DEATHS HOLDS FIRST MEETING: After visiting the site of a formerly segregated reform school in Prince George’s County where at least 230 Black youths are buried, Phyllis Hammond wrote a poem. Hammond, 69, read “If these woods could talk” Tuesday, at the first meeting of the commission that has been charged with researching “the history, operations, and resident deaths” at the former House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children in Cheltenham. Hammond, one of nearly two dozen members of that commission, wrote the poem in honor of her uncle, Amos Hammond, who died at the age of 18 in 1921, and other children who died at the reform school. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
AMAZON ABANDONS PLANS FOR DATA CENTER AT CALVERT CLIFFS: Amazon Web Services is abandoning its plans to develop data centers on the campus of Southern Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant, according to a news release issued Tuesday by Calvert County government. It comes after fierce voter pushback against hyperscale data centers in Calvert County’s primary election on June 23. Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
OLYMPIAN’s ATTORNEYS SEEK TO INOCULATE HIM AGAINST PROSECUTION: Attorneys for former Olympian David Hearn of Maryland, who had been accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, are asking a judge to ensure federal prosecutors don’t have a chance to reopen the case against him. Jasmine Golden and Liam Bowman/The Washington Post.
BA CO SPENT $1.5M TO DEFEND ITSELF IN COURT, RECORDS SHOW: From voting rights challenges and labor disputes to fights over public records and an inspector general investigation, Baltimore County has spent the past several years defending itself in court — and the price of those battles is adding up. The county paid outside law firms nearly $1.5 million between 2023 and 2025, according to invoices and county records obtained through Maryland Public Information Act requests. Natalie Jones/The Baltimore Sun.
BGE SEEKS TO STOP CONDUIT FEE HIKE IN B’MORE: BGE urged Baltimore officials Tuesday to reject a proposed conduit fee increase ahead of this week’s vote, while city leaders accused the utility of putting shareholder profits ahead of ratepayers. Brian Carlton/The Baltimore Sun.
ICE ARRESTS OF TWO PROFESSORS ROILS MARYLAND UNIVERSITIES: The recent immigration arrests of two Baltimore academics are roiling their Maryland universities that are already buffeted by new visa restrictions that affect thousands of international faculty, researchers and students. Daniel Zawodny, Alissa Zhu, Ellie Wolfe, Clara Longo de Freitas and Meredith Cohn/The Baltimore Banner.
MARYLAND JUDGE BLOCKS ICE DEPORTING MAN WHO TESTIFIED AGAINST MS-13: A federal judge in Maryland blocked the Trump administration from immediately detaining and deporting a man who testified against MS-13 members, finding that placing him in an immigration detention center and removing him to Mexico would be “akin to a death sentence.” Dan Belson/The Daily Record.
