which they may be elected." If the people
have the right to elect Hie judges, they should
have the right to go outside of the judicial
districts if they desire. It may be a matter of
practical coon convenience in some districts to do so,
Mr. SANDS. Will that enable the people to
go outside of their own judicial district for a
judge ?
Mr. STIRLING. Yes, sir.
Mr. SANDS. I am opposed to that.
Mr. RIDGELY. The amendment of the gen-
tleman from Baltimore city (Mr. Stirling) re.
fers also to the circuits, and allows a judge from
one county to be elected to serve in another
county.
Mr. STIRLING. If you are going to give the
election of judges to the people, let them have
that power to the fullest extent. In the pres-
ent condition of affairs in this State it may
be very necessary to take a main from one
county to be judge in another.
The question being taken upon the amend-
ment of Mr STIRLING, it was rejected
Mr, THRUSTON. I now move to strike out
the words "or district," so as to allow the
judges of the court of appeals, who are to be
elected on general ticket to be selected from
any part of the State, and not to be confined
to their special districts.
Upon this question Mr. MARBURY called the
yeas and nays, and they were ordered.
The question being then taken, by yeas and
nays, it resulted—yeas 18, nays 43—as fol-
lows :
Yeas—Messrs. Annan, Chambers, Cunning-
ham, Daniel, Davis, of Washington, Hopper,
Keefer, McComas, Mullikin, Negley, Russell,
Schley, Schlosser, Stirling, Stockbridge, Todd,
Thruston, Wooden—18.
Nays—Messrs. Goldsborough, President ;
Abbott, Berry, of Baltimore county, Billings-
ley, Blackiston, Bond, Brown, Crawford, Dail,
Davis, of Charles, Dent, Duvall, Earle, Ecker,
Edelen, Galloway, Harwood, Hodson, Hop-
kins, Jones, of Cecil, Jones, of Somerset,
Kennard, King, Lansdale, Lee, Marbury,
Mayhugh, Mitchell, Miller, Morgan, Parker.
Parran, Peter, Pugh, Purnell, Ridgely, Sands,
Smith, of Carroll, Smith, of Dorchester,
Smith, of Worcester, Swope, Thomas, Tur-
ner—43.
The amendment was accordingly rejected.
Mr. NEGLEY, when his name was called, said-
As these officers are to serve for the whole
State, I think the people of the whole State
ought to he permitted to take them from any
portion of the State. I therefore vote "aye."
Mr. ABBOTT. The section now reads.—
" They shall he not less than thirty years
of age," &c. I move to strike out the word
"thirty " and insert the word "forty."
The question being taken, the motion was
not agreed to.
Mr. STIRLING moved to strike oat " thirty "
and insert 'twenty-five."
The amendment was rejected. |
Mr. DAVIS, of Charles, moved to insert the
word "five" after the word "thirty."
Not agreed to.
Mr. MILLER. I move to strike out the word
"circuit" and insert the word " county," in
the clause of the section which now reads,
" resident in the judicial district or circuit "
The convention had determined by a very large.
vote to adopt the elective instead of the ap-
pointive system. They have refused to al-
low any judge of the court of appeals to be
taken outside of the judicial district. Now,
if there is to be one judge for each county in
the State, who shall he one of the judges of
the circuit court of the three counties of the
circuit, and also to be placed upon the bench
of the orphans' court, then properly to carry
out that provision each county should elect
its own judge lt will be found that by the
nineteenth section of this report the State is
too be divided into eight judicial circuits, pro-
viding that each circuit shall consist of three
counties. In each of those circuits are to be
elected three judges '; that is, one judge for each
county. He is required by the provisions of
this report to reside in the county for which
he is to he the judge, aid if the elective sys-
tem is to be carried out, it is but proper that
the people of the county should be the proper
constituency to elect that officer, aid not per-
mit the counties of St. Mary's, Charles and
Prince George's, for instance, to elect three
judges, all three of whom may be elected
from one of those counties, and require two
of them to remove to the other counties to re-
side. You should let the local bar of each
county furnish a man to be the judge in that
county.
Mr. CHAMBERS. They may not be able to
do it.
Mr. MILLER. I think they can.
Mr. SANDS. I would suggest to the gen-
tleman from Anne Arundel (Mr. Miller) that
his amendment is premature. The subse-
quent action of the convention upon other
subjects may require us to come back to this
section and reconsider it. If the convention
determine against the three-judge system, we
would have to go back and strike this out.
Mr. MILLER, I will withdraw the amend-
ment now, but shall probably introduce it at
some other time.
No further amendment was offered to this
section.
The next section was then read as follows :
"Sec. 3, The judges shall be appointed,
commissioned and designated as chief or associated
justices, by the governor, with the
advice and consent' of the senate. Each judge
shall hold his office during good behavior, or
until he shall attain the age of sixty years,
when. in the discretion of the governor, by
and with the advice and consent of the senate,
he' may he re-appointed for a term not ex-
ceeding ten years, after which he shall not be
re-appointed." |
