Balfour Beatty Construction v. Maryland Department of General Services

The State of Maryland considers a litany of factors when determining which company’s proposal it will select for the completion of a prominent State construction project. Unlike the selection of a contractor in the private sector, the process for the State is governed by the Maryland Administrative Procedure Act and Maryland procurement law. The question in this case concerns whether the State properly concluded that (1) it could consider a novel specification without triggering the Maryland APA’s rulemaking process and (2) the specification encourages “maximum practicable competition” under…