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with this Constitutional Convention, but it
started in 1954 when home rule was given
to municipalities. From that time on there
has not been any legislation passed in the
General Assembly relating to municipali-
ties. However, 152 municipalities have con-
tinued to enact ordinances, and orders and
regulations having the force of law. Also
by the growth of administrative law we
have almost some 240 or 243, depending
what counts you take, authorized adminis-
trative bodies to issue regulations and rules
having the force of law. By this constitu-
tion we are going to set up the following:
we will have 152 municipalities acting in a
legislative capacity; we will have 24
county governments operating in a legis-
lative capacity, and we have directed that
there be 20 principal departments of gov-
ernment, which will act in a legislative
capacity. We will still have one General
Assembly. It is a total of 197 law-making bodies. Now, this is not necessarily evil,
but it presents a very definite problem. At
a joint meeting which was held by the
Legislative Branch and the Local Govern-
ment Committees, this very concept of re-
sidual power was strenuously opposed by
Dr. Everstine, the Director of Legislative
Reference, on the ground that it would be
impossible to ascertain what the law was
governing a particular subject, if all this
power was turned over to the various
bodies.
However, this is a case in which the ad-
vantages of doing this have been considered
by this body to outweigh the disadvantages.
Now, the question that conies up if you
look at it closely is: what is the present
situation? We have scattered among cer-
tain articles of the Code a requirement for
the publication and compilation of certain
of the laws which have been passed by the
various bodies now authorized to pass
laws.
For example, Article 76 requires that
counties publish their regulations and laws.
However, some counties are excepted. Ar-
ticle 41, section 82 requires the governor
to publish laws of the General Assembly.
Article 41, section 2.47 requires the
agencies to deposit annually with the Sec-
retary of State, such laws and regulations
that they may pass and for the Secretary
of State to make these available for sale
to the general public.
However, I defy any person in this
room to locate all the regulations and rules
and statutes which govern any particular
legal activity in this case. It simply cannot
be done,
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I am not advocating that this constitu-
tion attempt to lay down a system of
compilation. I am bringing to the attention
of this body, that it has to be mandated
to be done and it has to be mandated with
teeth in it. We will have 197 bodies crank-
ing out laws, and this is what the proposal
said, that all of these activities, and there
are cited statutes, resolutions, rules, regu-
lations, ordinances, proclamations and other
actions having the force of law. These are
being compiled in a compilation that can
be understood.
The federal government went through
this in 1938 and came out with what is
known as the Federal Register, or the CFR
(CODE OF FEDERAL REGULATIONS). By con-
sulting the CFR it is possible to ascertain
what the federal government by its many
law-making bodies has directed. It may be
a job, but it can be done. However, it is
totally impossible to find this in any one
place in Maryland. Now, you can argue
yes, we have three statutes which direct
this to be done. I only point out to you
that it has not been done, and it is neces-
sary to force it to be done. The second
sentence of this says "Unless otherwise
provided by law, no action having a force
of law shall be effective until it is made
a part of this compilation and published/'
Only in the constitution can you cut broadly
across the law-making power of these 197
bodies to require them to do this, other-
wise there would be no way that you could
force that the laws made by these law-
making bodies not to be effective until this
is complied with. There is an escape clause
"unless otherwise provided by law." This
would most certainly exempt emergency
legislation; it would exempt small things
such as letting people off on a snowy day.
However, I want to point out to you that
this would provide not only teeth which
would be an advantage in getting this done,
it would also be something that would
settle a legal problem.
Knowledge is something that is required
to be known before a person can be found
to be guilty of violating a statute or regu-
lation. This is a sword that can cut both
ways. With our compilation and present
system of filing things, it is impossible to
establish knowledge in regard to an obscure
department regulation. However with con-
stitutional sanction and a system directed
by the General Assembly with constitu-
tional teeth in it, there would be no de-
fense that the law or statute was not
known. It might be difficult to locate it by
going to the compilation, but the defense of
ignorance would not hold. I urge you in the
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