10,862

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responsibility for congressional districting in the

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legislature subject to" guidelines which may be laid down

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by Congress, itself?

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DELEGATE GALLAGHER?: I think the language which

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you refer to can be interpreted that way. However, I

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don't read the Constitution of the United States as

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prohibiting Maryland from putting into its constitution

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what we attempt to do here.

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Congress apportions and the State districts, and

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it appears to me that a state may set down constitutional

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guidelines not inconsistent with Congress or in areas

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where Congress has not preempted the field. As you

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suggest, if Congress should pass statutory legislation

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covering these areas, these constitutional areas would

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fall.

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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gilchrist.

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DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Would we not then be better

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off if we did not write a provision which had the

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potentiality of being inconsistent with Congressional

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action?

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DELEGATE GALLAGHER: We might, but the point was