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which shall be known as the Court of Con-
stitutional Construction. All of the mem-
bers of the Bar in Maryland who served
as delegates to the Constitutional Conven-
tion of 1967 shall serve as judges of the
Court. The Chief Stenographer of the Con-
stitutional Convention shall be the Chief
Judge of the Court.
The Court shall have exclusive and orig-
inal jurisdiction to decide all justiciable
questions of the construction and meaning,
if any, of the Constitution of 1968, if any.
The Court shall also exercise all power
and duty devolved upon the Rules Com-
mittee by the Constitution of 1968."
THE CHAIRMAN: Amendment No. 23.
The Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 23,
on Committee Recommendation LB-2 by
Delegates Gallagher, Bard, Chabot, Clagett,
J. Clark, Fox, Grumbacher, Hanson, James,
Ross, Marion, Mudd, Needle, Scanlan,
Sickles, Sollins, H. Taylor, L. Taylor,
Wagandt, and Winslow:
On page 2, following line 42 of section
3.03a, Redistricting Procedure, add this
new sentence:
"The State shall be divided by law into
districts for the election of members of the
United States House of Representatives.
Each district shall consist of adjoining
territory and be compact in form.
Due regard shall be given to natural
boundaries and the boundaries of political
subdivisions. The number of persons repre-
sented by each member of the United States
House of Representatives shall be substan-
tially equal. The boundaries of districts
shall be re-established consistent with these
standards in accordance with the most re-
cent census for the apportionment of the
House of Representatives under the United
States Constitution. Upon petition of any
registered voter, the Court of Appeals shall
have original jurisdiction to review the dis-
tricting and grant appropriate relief if it
finds the districting to be unlawful."
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment hav-
ing been seconded, the Chair recognizes
Delegate Gallagher.
Do all delegates now have a copy of the
amendment? Amendment No. 23.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Chair-
man, ladies and gentlemen of the house:
You will remember last evening that we
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had before us an amendment which would
have created a congressional redistricting
procedure.
That amendment failed at that particular
time. You have now before you Amendment
No. 23, which I think is a more simplified
approach to the problem, which does pro-
vide that the legislature shall call for the
redistricting into congressional districts un-
der certain stipulated circumstances and
with certain tests, all of which are pre-
cisely comparable to those which wo have
provided for the state redistricting.
I think this is a good approach to the
problem of congressional redistricting. I
think it shows an attempt to be uniform,
both in congressional and in state redis-
tricting, and consequently I do believe that
it would be appropriate to adopt this par-
ticular amendment to the Committee Re-
port.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any ques-
tions to the sponsor of the amendment?
Delegate Wheatley?
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Would the
Chairman yield at this time?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: Would the
Chairman tell us what if any of the exist-
ing congressional districts would not be in
keeping with this proposed amendment?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Well, I can
simply say this; that since the deviation in
the present districts is less than two per-
cent, that I would say that undoubtedly the
number of persons represented in each of
the districts is substantially equal. I think
all of them are adjoining.
The only possible area of inquiry would
be whether or not they are compact. The
question of compactness is not one which I
feel qualified to pass upon with respect to
present congressional districts, and is one
in which it seems to me courts can have dif-
fering opinions.
I do not see that this is an attack on any
existing congressional district, as the fed-
eral court redistricted prior to the last elec-
tion.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Wheatley.
DELEGATE WHEATLEY: A further
question, please, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: State the question.
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