Quinn Emanuel has secured a complete and decisive victory for Quantum Maryland in its major data center development project.
The win, in an emerging body of nationwide litigation over the AI nerve centers, paves the way for Quantum Maryland to complete this important project. The ruling, upheld Tuesday by the Supreme Court of Maryland in a per curiam decision, came last month in an intense sprint orchestrated by Quinn Emanuel partners Keith Forst, Asher Griffin, and Justin Griffin and a team of dedicated associates. They took a full-blown fight – from complaint through motions practice, discovery, depositions, sanctions disputes, and a full trial – to completion in under 30 days and won on both counts.
Judge James A. Bonifant in Frederick County Circuit Court ruled that a critical zoning map amendment, unlocking more than 1,000 additional acres for Quantum Maryland’s project on a former aluminum smelter site, isn’t subject to a referendum under the Frederick County Charter. His order vindicated our theory of the case, that zoning map amendments implementing existing policy aren’t “laws” under Frederick County’s Charter. The win is the direct sequel to our victory in Delaware Chancery Court that installed Quantum Maryland as the sole developer of the project.
A successful referendum would have frozen not only the newly unlocked acreage but also halted development already underway inside the existing overlay zone. For Quantum Maryland, losing wasn’t an option.
We also argued that the maps, printed in grayscale instead of color, rendered the legend and boundaries unreadable and blocked voters from making an informed and intelligent decision on whether or not to support the referendum.
Perhaps the most dramatic moment of the trial came with the chairman of the Frederick County Data Center Referendum Committee on the stand, to testify that the whole signature-gathering effort had been by the book. On cross-examination, Asher handed him a thick binder containing hundreds of petition sheets and invited him to pick one he believed was clear. He picked one. Asher walked him through it, relentlessly: Where were the map boundaries, the zoning designations? Where were the streets?
After several minutes the witness looked up from the binder.
“You’re right,” he said. “It isn’t fully legible.”
The judge invalidated the petition.