Issac Lobe Straus  MSA SC 3520-1514

Democrat of Balimore City. Born in Baltimore City, March 24, 1871. Son of William Henry Straus and wife Annette Lobe, Jewish. Married Florence Ridgely. Died in Brookland ville, Baltimore County, February 4, 1946. Buried in Har Sinai Cemetery, Baltimore City.

House, BC-2, 1902  House, Sp Sess, BC-2, 1902  Attorney General, 1907-1911

During his time as an Attorney General he wrote a piece for the MD Bar Association entitled Changes to the MD Constitution. His writing focused mostly on removing fraud, bribery and corruption from state business and politics. The point that stands out most in his writing related to property, people’s rights, and how the State’s laws affected people’s lives. Good laws come from good opinion of the laws and the enforcement of them relies on this opinion. Further, the mission of lawyers should be to guide people to a positive view of the law.

Strauss worked tirelessly against zoning ordinances. He worked a case for the SPCA to allow them to build a dog shelter on their property. Zoning ordinances prevented the SPCA from erecting these shelters for the general welfare of the surrounding neighbors. He wrote a friend of court brief for Goldman v. Crowther and argued the case R. B. Construction Company v. Howard W. Jackson, Mayor. All of these cases reflected his disdain for zoning from both a legal and personal standpoint. He wrote at one time that zoning is part of “a communist theory of government.”

Primary Sources:

Maryland State Archives, Documents for the Classroom Series  Weyler v. Gibson, 110 Md. 636 (1909)

Secondary Sources:

Maryland State Archives Biographical file  MSA SC 1138-1514  02/11/11/11

New Sources:

Pyrrhic Victory: Daniel Goldman’s Defeat of Zoning in the Maryland Court of Appeals. Garrett Power. Maryland Historical Magazine. Vol. 82, No. 4. (1987).