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5.19 since in fact there will not be a ju-
dicial member of the nominating commis-
sion, and we cannot urge this too strongly.
Under 5.20 it would be nothing more
than a simple housekeeping amendment. We
would suggest that the term "non-judicial"
as used on line 16 and on line 19 be deleted,
because it would not be necessary.
Under section 5.21, that can be approved
one of two ways : we could either retitle it
"Terms of Office of Appellate Court
Judges" and keep the language intact up
to the sentence that ends with the word
"State" on page 38, so that judges on the
appellate court could in fact run against
their record every ten years.
The rest of the language in that section,
if our proposals are adopted, in our opin-
ion would be unnecessary.
That is essentially our position with re-
spect to selection and tenure of judges,
Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions of the minority spokesman?
Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Mr. John-
son, under your proposal, what would be
the term of the judges of the superior
court?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Fourteen
years.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: What
would be the term of the judges of the
two appellate courts?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: They would
be ten years, but running against their rec-
ord. We see an obvious division in a judge
who would run in an open election and a
judge who would run against his record.
We frankly felt that inasmuch as the
Commission recommended a ten-year non-
competitive election, if in fact we were
going to carry through a non-compstitive
election every ten years, we saw no rea-
son to argue with that term as proposed
by the Commission and the majority of
this Committee.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Is it true
that the pattern in other states is that the
higher the court, the longer the term?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: I am not cer-
tain about that, but I believe there are
some statistics that indicate that is a trend
of a type, but please bear in mind, Mary-
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land is unique with its fifteen year term.
We might be talking about other states
where they have a four or six year term on
trial court k'vel, and maybe ten, twelve or
up to fifteen on the appellate court level,
but very, very few States go over ten years
for the term of any judge on any court, I
might add.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Why do
you break at 14?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: We recom-
mend fourteen because it is in line with
our present system of fifteen, and in order
to keep the date consistent with the bien-
nial election at a fifteen year term when
a judge's term runs out and he has to be
reappointed for a period of time until the
next election. The only reason we suggest
fourteen is because we thought it made
better sense. A judge could run and four-
teen years later, when the term was up,
there would be another election.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: If you ap-
prove of the Niles Plan for the two highest
courts, why do you not approve of it for
the superior court and the district court?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: I thought I
commented on it. Let me answer this way:
the minority does not particularly favor
the Missouri plan at any level. However,
we recognize the fact that there is some
evidence that indicates that this is a viable
and proper procedure. Because of the clear
division that we find and see with respect
to appellate court judges and trial court
judges, and the fact that appellate court
judges are for all practical purposes in-
sulated from the people and try issues and
cases, rather than individuals and hear
witnesses, we thought if we are going to
try a system of this nature in the State of
Maryland, this certainly would be the area
to try it, on the appellate court level.
For that reason we endorsed it on the
appellate court level, only.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Do you
think it is wise to experiment with the
courts at the two highest levels?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: We do not
view it as experimentation, really. To the
best of my knowledge there has been very
little, if any election activity with respect
to judges running on the appellate court
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