And the pre-Christmas news keeps coming. (h/t Howard Gorrell)

A three-judge federal court just granted summary judgment, upholding the Maryland congressional districts against one challenge (there’s an additional challenge in federal court, and two others in state court; more here). The court rejected claims of racial gerrymandering and of violations of the Voting Rights Act, with a section on Gingles’ compactness requirements that Nick Stephanopoulos might find intriguing. It also joined the growing chorus of lower courts rejecting partisan gerrymandering claims for failure to present a justiciable standard likely to satisfy Justice Kennedy.

And perhaps even more significant, the unanimous and thorough opinion — by Judge Niemeyer of the 4th Circuit, and Judges Williams and Titus from the Maryland District Court — upheld the constitutionality of Maryland’s “No Representation Without Population Act”, which adjusts census data in the redistricting process to account for Maryland’s incarcerated population. (More here and here.)

The opinion (and prior court documents) is here. The lead opinion addresses the No Representation Without Population Act from pp. 8-20.

(Disclosure: I’ve advised on versions of legislation similar to Maryland’s census-adjustment act, elsewhere.)