BREAKING: NAACP, ACLU File Suit Over Red Line Cancellation

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a coalition led by the NAACP and the ACLU has filed suit over Governor Larry Hogan’s cancellation of the Baltimore Red Line, claiming racial discrimination under the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

A coalition of civil rights groups and city residents filed a federal complaint against the Hogan administration Monday, claiming its cancellation of Baltimore’s Red Line light rail project was racially discriminatory.

The coalition, which includes the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the ACLU of Maryland, said they are asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to launch an investigation into Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision in June to scuttle the $2.9 billion transit project.

In a conference call, lawyers for the coalition said they will take the action on behalf of the Baltimore City Chapter of the NAACP, the Baltimore Regional Initiative Developing Genuine Equality (BRIDGE) and African-American city residents.

The complaint contends that Hogan’s decision to cancel the Red Line and shift hundreds of millions of dollars that had been slated for the rail line into highway projects around the state had a discriminatory effect on African-American Baltimoreans.

The lawyer in me says that this should make for an interesting lawsuit. The politico says that getting ahold of some of th internal communications of the Hogan (non)deliberations should be highly entertaining.

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