|
In times such as we are experiencing at
present, it seems to me that the duties of
the attorney general certainly should not
become a permanent part of the basic docu-
ment of the State of Maryland.
It would seem far more preferable to
allow the General Assembly to determine
what those duties should be, because we
know that particularly in the field of
crime, as well as in the civil field, genuine
massive efforts are being made to attack
the problem.
Consequently, it seems to me that Mary-
land would be far better off to provide a
flexible office of attorney general so as to
be able to allow the General Assembly to
address itself to specific modes of con-
ferring jurisdiction and duties and powers
upon its chief legal officer.
A second point occurs to me, and that
is this, that we are anxious to strengthen
the executive, and the questions this morn-
ing would indicate that there is a very hazy
line here between whether or not the pro-
posed language for the constitution would
confer executive powers upon the attorney
general, thereby depriving the governor, to
some extent, of the power over the area
which we have heretofore decided shall be
exclusively his own.
In answer to some of the questions pro-
pounded to Chairman Morgan, it seems to
me quite obvious that the attorney general
would be exercising some executive func-
tions and that, furthermore, this consti-
tutional language would confer upon the
General Assembly power to add to the at-
torney general powers which are in fact
not legal in nature, having nothing to do
with carrying out the law, enforcing
process of the law, interpreting process,
but would confer upon him policy discre-
tion and policy decision.
I submit that we do not want to do this.
We have demonstrated that by the vote we
have taken with respect to the executive
article Recommendation No. 1, which has
already been approved overwhelming by
the Committee of the Whole.
I say to you in all sincerity that if the
powers which we desire in the Majority
Report to confer upon the attorney general
are necessary that the next session of the
legislature can well take the identical lan-
guage and put it into the public general
law. If these powers need to be changed or
modified, subtracted from or added to, the
General Assembly, it seems to me, can do
this and do it quite well.
|
It would be a great mistake, in an area
which requires such flexibility, to put these
powers in the Constitution. We make the
office cf the attorney general a far more
efficient office, one responding more ade-
quately to the needs of the time, by pro-
viding that all powers shall be legal in
nature and shall be put in the public gen-
eral law of the State.
I urge the adoption of the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there questions
of the sponsor of the amendment?
Delegate Harclwicke.
DELEGATE HARDWICKE : Delegate
Gallagher, first of all, by the adjective
"legal" which precedes the words "powers
and duties", you do not mean the word
"legal" in the sense of lawful, but you
mean legal in the sense of attorney-type
duties?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes, that is
correct.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I tried to
make the distinction here between duties
which are of the legal nature and duties
which are of the executive nature and to
draw the line between those two, and that
is the primary purpose of the use of the
word.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hardwicke.
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: I gather
from your general remarks, Delegate Gal-
lagher, that you intend that the attorney
general shall exercise no duties other than
those of an attorney ?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Yes, I be-
lieve that the Attorney General is the legal
officer of the State, that he is not an inde-
pendent, self-propelled entity to make deci-
sions which affect the State without the
concurrence, at least, of his client, and I
think that is quite important.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Hardwicke.
DELEGATE HARDWICKE: You do not
intend that he exercise exclusively all the
legal duties and powers?
THE CHAIRMAN: Dele-ate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: No, as a
matter of fact, I believe that when we left
the duties of the state's attorney by and
large to be defined by the General Assembly
that we set up an area there where there
will be either concurrent jurisdictions, per-
|
