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THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment hav-
ing been seconded, the Chair recognizes
Delegate Weidemeyer to speak to the
amendment.
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: Mr. Pres-
ident, members of the Convention, I will
not take too long on this because I think
that everyone can see the purpose of this
amendment.
In the last sentence of section 5.29 it
read now, any judge may be assigned to
assist temporarily in any court, as pre-
scribed by rule.
As I read that, it would mean that
judges everywhere throughout the court
system could be assigned anywhere to sit
temporarily.
I do not know whether the Committee in-
tended that district court judges would sit
everywhere. As it is now, the district court
under this new set-up will take the place
of our people's court, our municipal court
and our trial magistrate, and I would as-
sume that since the district court more or
less will be a court of rather limited juris-
diction, that the qualifications will not be
quite as heavy and severe as the judges of
the superior court.
I could conceive of some of the district
court judges being perfectly able and qual-
ified to sit temporarily in superior court
cases, but I have my doubts as to whether
many of them would be qualified to sit as
judges on the intermediate court of ap-
peals, or in the Court of Appeals, and I
must say I have conferred with some dele-
gates. They think well of this amendment
and some others have felt a little horror
about it, but I felt it was time to present
it, and let this Convention decide now and
for all whether or not the district judges
of limited jurisdiction should sit on the
appellate division in special cases, and that
is the simple purpose of this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mudd.
DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman, la-
dies and gentlemen of the Committee: I
must rise to oppose this amendment.
This matter in a little broader form was
proposed and considered in our Committee.
The proposal before our Committee pre-
cisely was that the vertical assignment of
judges be prohibited in the constitution.
I believe the suggestion probably received
more support to prohibit the assignment in
the opposite direction. There was some
thought in our Committee that it probably
was not practical to assign, for instance,
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a Court of Appeals judge to a district
court.
This proposal by Delegate Weidemeyer
and others is to prevent the assignment to
a court of higher jurisdiction.
The exact proposition covering both up
and down assignment, in other words, ver-
tical assignment in our Committee received
only one vote to include it in the constitu-
tion as a restriction on the assignment of
judges within the rule-making power of the
Court of Appeals. More members of the
Committee on the Judicial Branch voted to
omit such a provision from the constitution,
and accordingly, I oppose the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Any other discus-
sion? Are you ready for the question? The
Clerk will sound the quorum bell.
A question arises on the adoption of
Amendment 59. A vote Aye is a vote in
favor of the amendment. A vote No is a
vote against. Cast your votes.
Has every delegate voted? Does any dele-
gate desire to change his vote? The Clerk
will record the vote.
There being 33 votes in the affirmative
and 85 in the negative, the motion is lost.
The amendment is rejected.
The Chair believes this concludes con-
sideration of sections 5.29 to 5.31. If so,
we will move to a consideration of part 4 of
the Debate Schedule.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Mudd for
a brief presentation of the Committee Rec-
ommendation.
DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman —
THE CHAIRMAN: For what purpose
does Delegate Price arise?
DELEGATE PRICE: Mr. Chairman, I
have a very small privilege to ask. One of
the pages this morning, and I suppose yes-
terday, was circulating a little booklet in
which delegates were signing their names
for her collection at home, and somewhere
along the line that book has been lost, and
Mary would love to find it. If anyone has
a little blue book with pictures of all the
delegates in it, and pretty much completely
endorsed by all the delegates, would you
bring it back this way, please. She would
like to have it for her collection. Thank
you.
THE CHAIRMAN: You might take a
look in your desks, if you don't mind and
see if by any chance the lost book has been
put in it.
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