|
barked upon the program to effect the par-
ticular result which Delegate Grant would
have.
The second consideration was that we
were worried about the time lag for those
laws which needed immediate implementa-
tion. Although the provision does say that
there will be an exception unless otherwi.se
provided by law, it may be that there would
be no appropriate exception having earlier
been provided and one would find that what
had to be done in a hurry could not be
done because of a significant failure which
might not have been able to consider the
possibility that called for the enactment
of a law which was to be effective immedi-
ately.
Consequently, although we are complete-
ly in sympathy with the objectives of this
particular amendment, we did not feel that
it had a place in the Constitution. We did
feel that everything Mr. Grant wanted
could be achieved through the General As-
sembly.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
discussion?
Delegate Clagett?
DELEGATE CLAGETT: I am well
aware that too many words can do more
damage than good. At this point, I would
like to strongly endorse Delegate Grant's
amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any other
discussion?
Delegate Henderson.
DELEGATE HENDERSON: I would
like to oppose the amendment. It seems to
me as a practical matter, it presents in-
superable difficulties. Compilation, I as-
sume, would mean publication of something
like a code. Even now it is some months
before they put in the Code acts of the
legislature. It may be a matter of a year
or so. To delay the effective date of a bill
would be extremely burdensome.
Also the compilation of the rules of
court which now take in a separate section
of the Code are never up to date. Rules are
passed and there may be a half-dozen which
have come out in between the publication.
Some of them are emergencies and have
important changes, and to say that you
have to wait until the whole compilation
has been published and brought up to date
before a law can take effect would impose
an insuperable barrier as a practical
matter,
|
I am in sympathy with the objectives of
this, but I think it is a matter which has
to be left to the legislature.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lord, do
you desire to speak in favor or against it?
DELEGATE LORD: I wanted to .speak
against.
TPIE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Macdonald,
did you wish to speak in favor or against?
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Against
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Willoner?
DELEGATE WILLONER: I wanted to
speak in favor.
(Laughter.)
THE CHAIRMAN: You may have the
floor.
DELEGATE WILLONER: I think it is
an excellent idea. I think it is interesting
when I asked a question of Delegate Gal-
lagher why they used July first. He said,
that was the beginning of a fiscal year and
that was as good a day as any. But with
the extension of the legislature, it is going
to he even longer before the laws are pub-
lished, and it has always been a cardinal
principle of the common law that when a
person commits a crime that he ought to
have some knowledge that it is in fact a
crime. I know as a prosecutor we would
not find until months later that it was a
crime, that there was some new crime.
We had a conflict of interest by the way
in Prince George's County that we did not
even know was on the books until about
three or four months after it was enacted
when we finally got a copy of it. It was
interesting that Mr. Gallagher said that
he felt in the Committee's wisdom this
should not be part of the constitution, but
the wisdom did not seem as great to me as
the wisdom in making part of the constitu-
tion a provision that was absolutely mean-
ingless, his conflict of laws provision. It
seems to me that this is an excellent provi-
sion. It means something. It will give people
notice of the laws and I think it will be
very helpful to all people in the enforce-
ment of the laws.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Lord.
DELEGATE LORD: Mr. Chairman, the
troublesome aspect of this amendment, as I
see it, is the second sentence. I am very
much in sympathy with the principle and
agree with Delegate Willoner and Delegate
Grant. As I read the second sentence,
among the objections mentioned by Judge
Henderson was the delay in compilation.
|
