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DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chair-
man, to the best of my knowledge, the
Minority of the Committee did not prepare
in advance an amendment to 5.16 because
we did not contemplate that there would be
trial court nominating commissions.
THE CHAIRMAN: Amendment F?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Other than its
elimination, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Do you have one to
5.19?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Not other than
with respect to deleting section 5.19, inas-
much as it pertains to judicial members of
the nominating commission.
THE CHAIRMAN: Very well. Controlled
time applies to those amendments as well.
DELEGATE MUDD: In view of that,
Mr. Chairman, I reserve the time I have
for other possible amendments.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I yield the remaining time to Delegate
James Clark.
THE CHAIRMAN: Did you understand
my comment just made, that your con-
trolled time would apply as well to your
amendment to 5.19 and 5.16, if you offer it?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Well, let's say
that I was operating on what I called the
Chair's former ruling, that inasmuch as
we did not prepare an amendment to sec-
tion 5.16, all there would be if this amend-
ment were adopted is a housekeeping
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair has an
amendment marked F, Minority Report
amendment to section 5.16. Do you wish to
withdraw that?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I do not have it in front of me. I will check
as soon as we hear from the next speaker
during uncontrolled debate.
THE CHAIRMAN: May I suggest that
we proceed now with uncontrolled debate,
and that you save your time then?
DELEGATE JOHNSON: What time is
remaining? I do not want to be left with
two minutes under the remaining sections,
Mr. Chairman, if that is your rule.
THE CHAIRMAN: I understand that
you have three minutes.
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DELEGATE JOHNSON: Is it the rul-
ing of the Chair that the three minutes
pertain to all of the other sections?
THE CHAIRMAN: They pertain to
amendments submitted by the minority to
those sections, not to other amendments in
general. They pertain to any amendments
that the minority submits to sections 5.15,
5.16, 5.17, 5.18 and 5.19. I have two. Let me
suggest that we proceed to uncontrolled
debate. The Chair will recognize you after
you have had a chance to look at these
amendments and decide what you want
to do.
Will one of the pages please give these
amendments to Delegate Johnson? The
Chair will recognize anyone desiring to
speak in favor of the amendment. For
what purpose does Delegate Scanlan rise?
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I have a ques-
tion of Chairman Mudd, but I will defer it.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James
Clark, do you desire to speak in favor of
the amendment?
DELEGATE J. CLARK: Yes, sir.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may proceed.
DELEGATE J. CLARK: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Convention, I
rise to support this amendment because I
think the reasoning behind it is sound. I
am a little worried about putting too much
power in the hands of the judiciary. I
think this is the road we are going down.
Although I basically favor the plan before
us, I would feel a lot better about it if we
would even the power betwen the lay
people and the members who represent
the bar.
I have an amendment which would do
the same thing in the selection of the trial
judges. Therefore, I feel impelled that the
same principle applies here.
It also seems to me that the argument
which has been made that this puts the
judge in a very bad position is an excellent
argument.
I think we have to start at the beginning
to worry more about what the public is
thinking about what we are doing here,
and not just think about what we are go-
ing to do.
I think the public would feel much better
if this amendment were adopted. I think
that they would feel that the lay represen-
tatives on these commissions would at least
have an equal chance, and this is impor-
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