Maryland Senate - History

History

The origins of the Maryland Senate lie in the creation of an assembly during the early days of the Maryland colony. This assembly first met in 1637, making it the longest continuously operating legislative body in the United States. Originally, the assembly was unicameral, but in 1650, the Governor and his appointed council began serving as the upper house of a now bicameral legislature. These appointees had close political and economic ties to the proprietors of the Maryland colony, Cecilius Calvert and his descendants. Thus, the upper house in colonial times often disagreed with the lower house, which was elected, tended to be more populist, and pushed for greater legislative power in the colony.

The upper house was briefly abolished during the English Civil War, as Puritan governors attempted to consolidate control and prevent the return of any proprietary influence. It was again abolished by Governor Josias Fendall in 1660, who sought to create a colonial government based on an elected unicameral legislature like that of the Virginia colony. The position of Governor was removed from the legislature in 1675, but for the following century, its function and powers largely remained the same.

In 1776, following the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Maryland threw off proprietary control and established a new constitution. Under this new constitution, the upper house of the General Assembly first became known as the Maryland Senate. The new body consisted of fifteen Senators appointed to five-year terms by an electoral college. The college, made up of two electors from each county and one each from the cities of Baltimore and Annapolis, was limited in its selections only by the stipulation that nine Senators need be from the western shore and six from the eastern shore.

The first election under the 1776 constitution took place in 1781, and the system would not change again until 1838. In the interim, a number of problems had cropped up in the appointment process, and the 1838 election saw the passage of a number of constitutional amendments that fundamentally changed how Senators were chosen. The electoral college was abolished, terms were lengthened to six years with rotating elections such that a third of the senate would be elected every two years, and a single Senator was chosen by direct election from each county and the City of Baltimore. The Senate no longer acted as the Governor's Council, although they would continue to confirm the Governor's appointments. Constitutional changes altered this new system slightly in 1851, when terms were shortened to four years, and 1864, when Baltimore City was given three Senate districts rather than one, but substantial change to the structure of the Senate did not come again until 1964.

In 1964, the Supreme Court ruled in Reynolds v. Sims that state legislative seats must be apportioned on the principle of one man, one vote. A number of state legislatures, including Maryland, had systems based on geography rather than population, and the court rules that this violated the 14th Amendment. Disproportionate population growth across Maryland since 1838 meant that the principle of one seat per county gave the voters of some counties, such as those on the eastern shore, disproportionate representation. Other counties, especially those in suburban areas, were underrepresented.

A special session of the legislature in 1965 changed the Senate to represent 16 districts and reapportioned the seats, again by county, but did so in such a way as to make the representation more proportional to population than it had been. Thus, the eastern shore, which had previously elected nine Senators, elected only four after 1965. This was done to preserve the ideal of having whole counties represented by a single Senator, rather than breaking counties up into multiple districts. A constitutional amendment in 1972 expanded the Senate to 47 members, elected from districts proportional to the population. These districts are reapportioned every ten years based on the United States Census to ensure they remain proportional.