Achilles, Superman and the Death Star all had their weak spots.

So does Senate President Bill Ferguson’s plan to block midcycle redistricting in Maryland: Rule 42.

As the Senate’s presiding officer, the powerful Baltimore Democrat can play legislative traffic cop, deciding which bills move and how fast. And right now Ferguson is flashing a red light on plans to redraw Maryland’s congressional maps approved by Gov. Wes Moore and the House of Delegates.

But there is another way — even if it’s politically risky and rarely used.

Rule 42 allows one-third of the Senate, 16 members, to petition a bill to the floor, as long as it’s been sitting in a committee for more than 20 days. That clock started ticking Wednesday when the Senate sent the bill to a committee.

The legislative chess move is rare. Even talk of a petition is an act of defiance, though one senator nodded toward Rule 42 on Thursday after a floor speech seeking a redistricting vote.

It’s been used once in the Senate in the last 60 years, according to available state records. Senators clawed a bond bill out of committee in 1981 that funded a Choptank River bridge project and passed it.

The petition can serve as a referendum on a Senate president’s leadership and a dismissal of regular committee order.

But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been discussed or attempted.

After struggling for years to repeal the death penalty, Sen. Lisa Gladden of Baltimore and a handful of colleagues considered using a petition to bypass objections by Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. in 2012. Gladden ultimately abandoned the effort, telling WBAL “politics” had changed her mind.

Ferguson said he’s confident where his caucus stands and doesn’t foresee it using the rule to bypass him.

He’s probably right. Senators don’t pull such moves in a typical session, never mind an election year. Ferguson controls their committee assignments, chairmanships and the Senate Democrats’ campaign cash.

A quick legislative math lesson: A discharge petition needs 16 senators to sign on. But then they’d need even more votes — 29 total — to both break the filibuster and pass the bill. That’s because it would amend Maryland’s constitution, and that requires a three-fifths majority.

Getting the bill to the floor might unleash a flood of support, but with that kind of majority you probably wouldn’t need Rule 42 in the first place.

Some senators want to know where their colleagues stand. Sen. Arthur Ellis requested a straw poll of where senators stand on redistricting during a closed-door caucus meeting on Tuesday but was swiftly reprimanded for proposing the private count. Two days later he took his case to the Senate floor, saying he wanted the redistricting bill to face an up or down vote.

“It just happened that the back rooms conversations didn’t work out. So I spoke up in the front room today,” he said. The Charles County Democrat is considering a run for Congress. He said other senators have privately supported his position but didn’t clarify on Thursday how many.

Meanwhile, Ferguson has parked the bill in the Senate Rules Committee with no plans of moving it. That committee meets infrequently and is stacked with members of his leadership team.

“We don’t have a habit of moving things forward in the Senate that don’t have an opportunity,” he said.

Ferguson’s stand

Ferguson remains unmoved despite months of attempts to strong-arm him. Redistricting is not more important than lowering the cost of living or bills to limit the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement in Maryland, he said.

A community chili cook-off confirmed his position.

“I had one person bring up redistricting as being concerned and about 25 say, ‘That’s a really bad idea. Thank you for not focusing time on it,’” he said.

Ferguson remembers Maryland’s most recent redistricting attempt. A judge sided with Republicans in a 2022 lawsuit and struck down Democrats’ map that would have redrawn Maryland’s last GOP stronghold, calling it “an extreme partisan gerrymander.”

And Maryland Republicans are pledging to file a lawsuit again, which could put the decision in the hands of a judge and result in more GOP-friendly districts. Ferguson argues the legal back-and-forth could drag out past the state’s midterm election timelines.

Moore and D.C. Democrats are likely to continue to apply pressure on Ferguson and his caucus as the midterms approach.

Moore has stepped up for the national party as it battles the GOP for seats in the House. And he has publicly and privately pressured Ferguson and senators.

Moments after delegates passed the map Monday, Moore raced to his Maryland State House office suite for a cable news interview alongside House Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk.

Moore spoke directly to Ferguson and also to his party. He praised the House for its courage in the face of the unyielding attacks from the Trump administration.

And he made an ask of the Senate.

“Just do as the House has done,” he said. “Debate the maps, discuss the maps and then take the vote.”

Those next moves are up to Ferguson.