4 | EXPRESS | 06.18.2019 | TUESDAY
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Court OKs Va.’s redrawn map POLITICS The Supreme Court dismissed the challenge to a lower court’s finding that some of Virginia’s legislative districts were racially gerrymandered, saying Monday that House Republicans lacked standing for the challenge. The decision could give an advantage to the state’s Democrats. All 140 legislature seats are on the ballot this fall, and the GOP holds majorities in both the House (51 to 49) and the Senate (21 to 19). Democrats have been hoping that recent victories in Virginia elections will propel them to control the legislature for the first time since 1995. The party that controls the General Assembly in 2021 will oversee the next statewide redistricting effort, potentially cementing an advantage in future elections. Primaries were held last week in the new districts. The case split the court. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in the 5-4 case, saying that House Republican leaders could not challenge the court ruling because they did not represent the commonwealth.
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE (AP)
Justices’ ruling may give Democrats advantage in upcoming election
People wait outside the Supreme Court on Monday, where justices voted 5 to 4 to uphold that Virginia legislative districts had been gerrymandered.
The state’s attorney general declined to continue the case, Ginsburg wrote. “The State of Virginia would rather stop than fight on,” she wrote. “One House of its bicameral legislature cannot alone continue the litigation against the will of its partners in the legislative process.” She was joined in an unusual alignment by Justices Clarence Thomas, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Neil Gorsuch. Justice Samuel A lito Jr.
Uranium ban upheld The Supreme Court on Monday also upheld Virginia’s ban on uranium mining in a fight over an untapped deposit thought to be the largest in the U.S. The court sided 6-3 with the state’s right to regulate the industry. The majority concluded that federal law does not preempt Virginia’s decades-old ban. The Virginia General Assembly has been wary of mining the uranium since the nuclear accident at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island in 1979. (TWP)
dissented, saying he saw no support “for the proposition that Virginia law bars the House from defending, in its own right, the constitutionality of a districting plan.” He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Justices Stephen Breyer and Brett Kavanaugh. Because the state did not draw a new map after the decision by a lower court, the judges had an outside expert draw a new map. It realigns 26 House districts as it remedies the 11 under court order. Six Republican delegates would be in districts with a majority of Democratic voters, according to an analysis by the Virginia Public Access Project. Not surprisingly, Virginia Democrats and Republicans had opposite reactions. “Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a victory for democracy and voting rights in our Commonwealth,” Gov. Ralph Northam, D, said in a written statement. House Speaker Kirk Cox, RColonial Heights, said he was “disappointed” and noted that the ruling hinged on the question of the chamber’s standing rather than the merits of what he described in a written statement as a “constitutionally enacted redistricting plan.” ROBERT BARNES AND LAURA VOZZELLA (THE WASHINGTON POST)
BALTIMORE
THE DISTRICT
Symphony players protest as managers propose cuts
Council plans to approve budget following standoff
A wealthy stock trader was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison after being convicted in the fiery death of a man who was helping him dig tunnels for a nuclear bunker beneath a Bethesda home. Daniel Beckwitt, 28, apologized to the parents of 21-year-old Askia Khafra, who was burned beyond recognition by the September 2017 fire above the tunnels. Beckwitt had faced up to 30 years in prison. (AP)
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians protested with signs and chants outside the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on Monday, after being locked out of the center as management negotiates salaries. Facing a projected $1.5 million deficit, the organization has proposed cutting musicians’ pay, health care and vacation time, and shortening the season from 52 to 40 weeks. (THE BALTIMORE SUN)
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KEVIN RICHARDSON (THE BALTIMORE SUN VIA AP)
BETHESDA
Man gets 9 years in prison for fatal fire above tunnels
Musicians for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra protest Monday amid salary negotiations.
Clarksburg, Md., man killed Sunday after car going wrong way collides with vehicle
The D.C. Council plans to vote today to use $47 million in excess cash generated by the Washington Convention and Sports Authority for priorities including public housing repairs, resolving a standoff with the D.C. chief financial officer that threatened to derail the city’s budget, according to officials familiar with the deal. Council members expect the city’s CFO will certify the resulting budget. (TWP)
Metro probe reveals Evans violated rules POLITICS A law firm retained by the Metro board’s ethics committee to investigate chairman Jack Evans found “evidence of multiple violations” in his dealings with two private companies and a 2018 business plan used to obtain a job, the panel’s chairman said Monday. While the firm found several instances where Evans violated the board’s ethics code, the four-member Ethics Committee could agree to punish Evans on only one violation — a conflict of interest regarding Evans’ work on behalf of Colonial Parking. The committee decided to punish Evans by determining he would no longer chair the board. Evans announced May 23 that he would not seek reelection as chair when his term expires June 30. He said then the decision wasn’t related to the probe. But committee chair Clarence C. Crawford said Monday in a letter to the governors of Maryland and Virginia that Evans’ account was not true. He said the investigation found ethics code violations in Evans’ efforts to help Colonial Parking; to assist a digital sign company; and to use a business plan in efforts to get a job with a law firm. Evans’ attorney Mark Tuohey disputed the report summary Monday, according to the Washington City Paper. He said the panel “did not agree” on the extent of Evans’ wrongdoing or whether to strip him of the chair role. ROBERT McCARTNEY (TWP)
Ex-federal contractor pleads guilty to taking cash to change drug test results