10,859

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commission which does the redistricting for the General

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Assembly. This Commission hopefully would gain some

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stature and prestige and expertese, and therefore we have

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conferred upon it the duty of initiating congressional

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districting under 3.03(c). In any year in which there is

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to be congressional redistricting that commission will

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submit to the Governor, who in turn shall send it to the

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General Assembly, a plan for congressional redistricting.

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Now, we have required that the General Assembly

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take it and either enact it into law or enact a redistricting

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plan of its own. We feel that we cannot go any further

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than this and attempt to confer jurisdiction upon the

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Court of Appeals or any court whatsoever because of the

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complications that arise under the constitution.

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Ultimately it would appear, as we have pointed

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out before, that the responsibility for drawing the

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districts is in the General Assembly, and I don't think it

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would be wise to put any of that responsibility anyplace

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else, although we recognize that the Federal courts in

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Maryland have taken this responsibility on in 1966.

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Here I should say with respect to natural