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DELEGATE SYBERT: Delegate James,
I did not quite follow your argument: If
three or five or ten district judges were
initially appointed for a district, in other
words, a multiple judge district, and one of
them died and this amendment were
adopted requiring the vacancy to be filled
from the county where the vacancy oc-
curred so as to maintain the number in
existence, how would that affect the situ-
ation?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James?
DELEGATE JAMES: As I see the situ-
ation, it is exactly this: The judge dies and
you have enough judges to maintain the
basic minimum for the counties, yet there
would be a constitutional requirement that
the vacancy be filled from the county where
the judge died.
This might not necessarily be required to
provide for basic minimum county repre-
sentation, but in spite of this fact, the gov-
ernor and the nominating commission would
be tied to the area where the vacancy was
created. In other words, even though it
might not be necessary to maintain the
constitutional minimum requirement for a
district judge from each county of the
State if the caseload did not warrant it,
one would be appointed to fill the vacancy.
I simply think this is a little bit different
from the provision we adopted on Friday.
THE. CHAIRMAN: Delegate Schneider
is recognized to speak in opposition.
DELEGATE SCHNEIDER: I would like
to bring up the point I brought up before
which I think Delegate James has some-
what hit upon. That is we have not abol-
ished the districts. Perhaps the Eastern
Shore counties with their one district court
judge might have a requirement for some
residual amount above that; there might
be three of them in a district. Or a dis-
trict of three counties might need three
judges, plus a fourth one to go between
the counties. A larger county might need,
on the other hand, 2.5 judges and another
county 2.5 as well. To keep the district con-
cept, we are going to have to allow resi-
dency in the district. If we require resi-
dency in the county there is no real reason
then for the district concept. If we vote for
this amendment we admonish you to strike
out the whole concept of districts. I urge
the defeat of this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment? Does any other delegate desire to
speak in opposition? Delegate Marion?
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DELEGATE MARION: I would like to
say I think Delegate James' explanation of
what this amendment does and perhaps
should not do is correct. I see no inconsis-
tency between letting section 5.13 stand
with the word district in it and Amend-
ment No. 18 to section 5.10 which we
adopted on Friday. I do agree further that
if we adopted this amendment it would
virtually preclude the establishment of dis-
tricts for the administration of what we
call the district court. I urge the defeat of
the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you ready for
the question?
The question arises on the consideration
of the second portion of Amendment No.
22. Delegate Storm?
DELEGATE STORM: Mr. Chairman,
after conferring with my co-sponsor and
Senator James and a couple of other dele-
gates, if it is in order, we will withdraw
our amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Sybert, do
you concur?
DELEGATE SYBERT: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: The sponsor and
seconder of the second portion of Amend-
ment No. 22 have withdrawn it and it is
no longer before you.
The amendment as so modified was
rejected.
Now we come to section 5.14, considera-
tion of the amendment offered by the Mi-
nority Report.
Will the chief page please cause to be
distributed Amendment CE.
This will be Amendment No. 23.
The Clerk will read the Amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 23
to accompany Minority Report JB-1, to
Committee Recommendation JB-1, by Dele-
gates Johnson, Harkness, Hickman, Kahl,
Murphy, Siewierski, Rush: On page 4 sec-
tion 5.14 Nomination and Appointment
strike out all of lines 35 through 50, in-
clusive, and insert in lieu thereof the fol-
lowing :
"Section 5.14. Nominations and Ap-
pointments for Appellate Courts.
"The governor shall fill a vacancy in
the office of judge of the Court of Ap-
peals and the Intermediate Appellate
Court by appointing one person from a
list of no fewer than three nor more than
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