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amount rather than to try to net a flat
sum as to the Jurisdictional amount. Five
dollars as set in the present Constitution
is obviously at this point of no importance.
We have also retained the concept that in
civil cases there shall be unanimous jury
decisions, but we have permitted the legis-
lature to reduce the size of civil juries to
not less than six if it should so decide that
it is desirable.
Under unusual punishments there have
been no changes. The clause, "no convic-
tion of crime shall work corruption of
blood or .forfeiture of estate", is an ancient
and honorable right which guarantees that
a person's family will be protected ag-ainst
the sins that a person himself may have
committed.
Now we come to section 9, very quickly,
Limitations on State Action, and there are
three parts. "(A) The right to the writ of
habeas corpus and the provisions of this
Constitution shall not be suspended."
This follows pretty closely two Declara-
tions of Rights, or rather it follows first of
all Article III section 55 of the Mary-
land Constitution which provides that the
General Assembly shall pass no law sus-
pending the privilege of the writ of habeas
corpus. It also follows Article 44 of the
Declaration of Rights which provides that
the Constitution shall remain in force in
time of war and peace.
We will go into this further when dis-
cussion may develop on it.
There is one very important area where
we have made changes, and that is in the
case of eminent domain:
"Private property shall not be taken or
damaged for public use or purposes without
just compensation."
Under the present Constitution, we have
found limitations which we believe can be
clearly and more succinctly stated.
Let me say first of all that eminent do-
main is a prerogative of the Government,
of the sovereignty, and it does not take a
Constitutional grant to give it. What we
are doing is providing prohibitions against
the sovereign's right of eminent domain.
We have done this in several ways.
First of all, we have stated that private
property shall not be taken or damaged
without just compensation. At present
there has to be a physical intrusion on the
property before you can recover damages.
Secondly, we added the word "purposes"
to allow for the taking of public property
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without having each separate purpose
spelled out in the Constitution for pur-
poses such as urban renewal, harbor de-
velopment, and so forth.
Again, when we get more fully into dis-
cussion we will cover these more completely.
Finally, we have eliminated the provi-
sions with respect to the necessity or rather
the prohibition against the so-called "quick
take'' which would not allow the govern-
ment to come in and take your property
until the price has been agreed upon. But,
as you know, there have been a number of
exceptions spelled out in detail in the
present Constitution. We hope that we have
eliminated the need for such lengthy pro-
visions.
This is something that ought to be and
can be taken care of easily by uniform
legislative action.
Hurrying on, because I will get this all
done very quickly, section 9 (C), Bill of
Attainder, "No bill of attainder or ex post
facto law or law impairing the obligation
of contracts shall be enacted."
These simply reiterate stated prohibitions
against freedom that are set forth in both
our own Constitution and in the Federal
Constitution, with this exception. There is
nothing in the present Maryland Constitu-
tion with respect to a law impairing the
obligation of contracts, but there is in the
Federal Constitution a prohibition ag-ainst
states enacting such a law, so in effect we
have already had this protection.
In section 10 there is the reserved rights
section which says, "The enumeration of
rights in this Constitution shall not be con-
strued to impair, disparage or deny others
retained by the people."
As Exhibit C to this report you will find
an article by Delegate Hardwicke in which
he expounds quite considerably on this
little-known and little-used amendment or
declaration of rights, but one which may be-
come increasingly important in the future.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, last but
not least, having covered these articles very
quickly and very briefly, I would now like
to comment only momentarily on the very
first part of any Constitution, which I bring
up last of all, the Preamble. The Preamble
that we recommend to you says this:
"We, the People of the State of Mary-
land, grateful to Almighty God for our
civil and religious freedom; recognizing
that all political power originates in the
people and that all government is instituted
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