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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: If it would
please Delegate Storm, I would be glad to
prepare it.
THE CHAIRMAN: If there are no other
questions, the Chair has a question of Dele-
gate Gallagher for purposes of clarification.
This amendment does not indicate pre-
cisely to whom the person designated as
counsel shall be counsel. It does not say
counsel to the governor or counsel to anyone
else.
Is it the intent here that the amendment
refer to counsel to the governor, and only
to the governor?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: That is cor-
rect, Mr. Chairman. The heading of the
section is "Counsel to the Governor".
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: Mr. Chairman,
this amendment, maybe in not the same
words but with exactly the same policy,
came up before the Committee and the
Committee turned it down.
I think the amendment is unnecessary,
because I am sure that the governor could
appoint his own counsel just as the General
Assembly would appoint its own counsel
under their existing authority, and I do
not see any particular need for giving the
Governor this authority in the Constitution.
I would urge that the Committee Recom-
mendation be adopted and this amendment
be defeated.
T,HE CHAIRMAN: Is there any other
discussion?
Delegate Bamberger?
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: Will Dele-
gate Morgan yield to a question?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan, do
you yield for a question?
DELEGATE MORGAN: I do.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bamberger.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: May I pre-
sume that your opposition to the amend-
ment is not in any way or to any degree
a qualification of the last sentence of the
Committee Recommendation EB-2 which
states the intention of the Committee that
the adoption of the Committee Recommenda-
tion EB-2 is not intended to be any prohibi-
tion against the power of the governor or
the General Assembly to appoint legal coun-
sel to aid and assist them?
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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan?
DELEGATE MORGAN: It certainly is
not.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any further
discussion?
Are you ready for the question ?
(Call for the question.)
The Clerk will ring the quorum bell.
Delegate Bamberger?
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: I feel the
same impatience, but I think there is some-
thing which must be said for this amend-
ment which has not been said.
Amendment No. 1 offered by Delegate
Gallagher had one important provision
which may have become lost, and that was
the avoiding, or the possibility of avoiding,
conflicts between the legislative branch and
the executive branch.
I think those in this Assembly who have
had experience in the attorney general's
office have been cognizant of the fact that
there are times when the governor may
ask for advice with respect to legislation
that has been passed by the General .As-
sembly.
The governor may have a serious oues-
tion of whether or not a particular act is
constitutional.
The attorney general aften has a conflict,
sometimes because at the request of a de-
partment of the State he drafts legislation,
and in that instance he is later called upon
to pass on the validity of the work which
he did.
I would suggest that the amendment
offered by Delegate Gallagher avoids that
conflict.
Secondly, I think it allows the governor,
who is a member of a political party which
is different than the political party of the
attorney general, and who may sometimes
be awakened at night with concern that the
attorney general is going to be his oppo-
nent in the next general election, has the
right to bring to public view what we all
know he often has now — that is, an attorney
who does not appear in any Maryland Man-
ual as an officer or an agent of the State,
who is not compensated by any salary or
remuneration which can be found in any
budget or legislative enactment.
It has certainly been my experience that
this has often been the case. The governor
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