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Proceedings and Debates of the 1967 Constitutional Convention
Volume 104, Volume 1, Debates 1157   View pdf image (33K)
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[Nov. 22] DEBATES 1157

DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman
and fellow delegates: As indicated by my
opening remarks, and complementing, I
hope, what has been the actions of the
Committee of the Whole with respect to
curtailing some unfortunate extension of
judicial power, I feel that the matter now
before you is essentially one of logic and
practicality.

If it makes any sense to have the gov-
ernor designate a chief judge of the Court
of Appeals of Maryland and to give a
judge a term so that he will be chief judge
as long as he remains on the Court of
Appeals, or until he resigns the position,
and then have that appointed chief judge
appoint other chief judges who serve at his
pleasure, if that makes sense to you, then
you will, of course, vote against our
amendment.

But if you believe as we that a system
will work, and work better if the appoint-
ing governor will also designate the chief
judge of the appellate court, superior
court and the district court, and that they
will also have a term similar to the chief
judge, and that this is the democratic and
proper way of doing something, then you
will vote for our amendment.

Our amendment does not in any way
affect the power of the chief judge of the
Court of Appeals to be and remain the ad-
ministrative head of the entire judicial
court system.

Our amendment does not change in any
way the fact that the chief judge may
designate other administrative judges, but
the matter of chief judge, we submit, is
different, and we submit his importance,
and I urge you to adopt this amendment.

THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Mudd.

DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman,
may I yield three minutes to Delegate Hen-
derson, please?

THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Henderson.

DELEGATE HENDERSON: Mr. Chair-
man, fellow delegates, I think the position
of the minority is based to some extent,
perhaps, on a misconception of just what
this section is intended to do.

We are talking now about the chief
judge appointing the three keymen in a
statewide judicial system. We are not talk-
ing now about the county levels. We are
talking about designating, naming chief
judges who will be in effect his administra-
tive assistants.

Now, the purpose of giving the title of
chief judge to these people that he selects,
he selects them from among the judges who
are already in office, so that the purpose is
that he would be sure, he wants to assure
himself, that the person who is selected as
he selects or names, designates as the
chief judge, shall be a person who pos-
sesses administrative ability.

It is not every judge who possesses that
kind of talent. We are extremely fortunate
here in Maryland that our present chief
judge is a great administrator and he has
a great administrator in the person of
Fred Invernizzi to assist him.

That is a very healthy thing, but on the
Rules Committee we had some research
done on what a chief judge really is.

We found a good many authorities
throughout the country which hold that a
chief judge is merely a presiding judge.
He is not necessarily an administrator.

To go one step further back, this section
really does not change anything under the
present setup. The Court of Appeals only
six months ago passed a rule which gave
in effect the authority to the chief judge of
the Court of Appeals to name as an ad-
ministrative judge in each county one
other than the existing chief judge.

I believe he has exercised that only in
two cases. In both of those cases the chief
judge requested hat he name someone other
than himself as the administrative judge.

THE CHAIRMAN: You have one-half
minute, Delegate Henderson.

DELEGATE HENDERSON: The report
of the Commission in the draft of the con-
stitution contains some significant reasons
why they thought it was necessary that he
possess the power to name the chief judge,
because it was felt that by giving him the
title of chief judge this administrative
judge would have more authority, and the
other judges might listen to him on ac-
count of his office.

For that reason, I strongly urge that we
adopt this provision.

THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson,
you have eight minutes you can allocate.

DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I would just reserve about three minutes
for the close, if you do not mind.

THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mudd.

DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman, I
would like to yield three minutes to Dele-
gate Marvin Smith.

 

 

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Proceedings and Debates of the 1967 Constitutional Convention
Volume 104, Volume 1, Debates 1157   View pdf image (33K)
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