Maryland’s highest court killed plans Tuesday to have Montgomery County residents vote on whether to repeal a new Montgomery County law that prohibits discrimination against transgender people.
The state’s Court of Appeals reversed a lower court’s decision to uphold a November referendum on the civil rights measure, rejecting arguments from the Montgomery County Board of Elections that a gay and transgender rights group had waited too long to challenge errors in the petition certification process.
Last month, Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert Greenberg ruled that the ballot vote could legally proceed, despite problems with the number of voters who signed the referendum petition.
Greenberg said the Board of Elections had erred when it used the number of active voters, as opposed to the larger pool of registered voters, to determine how many signatures were needed to force a vote over the law. He ultimately found, however, that gay and transgender rights group Equality Maryland had waited too long to challenge the matter, saying group members should have made their claims after the first round of petition signatures was submitted in February, rather than after the signatures were certified in March.
A seven-judge Court of Appeals panel said only that Greenberg’s decision is “reversed, and the matter remanded to the circuit court” with directions to enter judgment in favor of those who support the civil rights law. They said a full opinion would come later; the release of the decision was expedited because November ballots must be certified on Wednesday.
Leaders of the social conservative group Citizens for Responsible Government partnered with church groups and others to collect more than 25,000 signatures from people hoping to overturn the law. Many said they feared the bill would allow men to access women’s restrooms, although Montgomery leaders exempted personal facilities from the measure.
Citizens for Responsible Government, however, was not a named party in the lawsuit, as it was the Montgomery County Board of Elections that set the number of signatures necessary to force a ballot vote. Dr. Ruth Jacobs, president of Citizens for a Responsible Government, said the court decision disenfranchised voters and was “a big loss for democracy.”
“I don’t think the people of Montgomery County should be shortchanged for the mistakes of the Board of Elections,” Jacobs said.
Dana Beyer, a transgender woman and senior policy adviser to the law’s sponsor, Councilwoman Duchy Trachtenberg, said she was “thrilled and relieved.”
“I am glad we can move on,” Beyer said.
