|
privately or be connected with any private
law firm.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Morgan.
DELEGATE MORGAN: I think it was
a tacit assumption of what would take
place.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bamberger,
do you desire to offer your amendment K?
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: Yes, I do.
THE CHAIRMAN: The pages will
please distribute amendment K.
This -will be Amendment No. 8.
The Clerk will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 8
to Committee Recommendation EB-2 by
Delegate Bamberger: On page 2 section ,
Powers and Duties of the Attorney Gen-
eral, in line 7 strike out the words "other
matters" and insert in lieu thereof the
following words: "his responsibilities as
chief legal officer of the State."
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment is
offered by Delegate Bamberger; is there
a second?
(The motion was duly seconded.)
THE CHAIRMAN : The amendment hav-
ing been seconded, the Chair recognizes
Delegate Bamberger to speak to the amend-
ment.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: May I
have permission of the Committee to add
as sponsors of the amendment Delegates
Hardwicke and Gallagher who withdraw
their amendments which were designed to
accomplish the same purpose.
THE CHAIRMAN: Is there any objec-
tion? If not, the names Hardwicke and
Gallagher will be added as sponsors.
Delegate Bamberger.
DELEGATE BAMBERGER: The pur-
pose of this amendment is to accomplish
what the committee memorandum says is
their intention. It strikes the words "other
matters" on line 7 of page 2 of the Com-
mittee Recommendation and substitutes the
definition, "His responsibilities as chief
legal officer of the state."
The effect of this amendment is that the
General Assembly by law may prescribe
powers and duties for the attorney general.
First, with respect to civil and criminal
cases and proceedings and then secondly
|
with respect to his responsibilities as chief
legal officer of the State. I think in all the
discussion this morning, there was agree-
ment among the committee that the at-
torney general was to be the lawyer, for the
governor, for the legislative branch and for
the various departments and agencies of
the State and that it was not the intention
that the General Assembly should ever be
able to empower the attorney general to
run an administrative department of the
State. That is the function of the execu-
tive and under the governor.
Now, we have that peculiar situation in
Maryland now with respect to the Securi-
ties Department. The Legislature created
a department which would register and
license people who would deal in securities
in the State and who would register the
issuance of securities in the State. That
is an administrative department, like the
bank commissioner, the insurance commis-
sioner, the small loan commissioner, and it
ought not to be a responsibility of or an
administrative department run by the of-
ficer of the State who is the lawyer for
the State. He should be the lawyer for
that department and not the administrator
of that department.
This amendment only makes it clear that
those functions, powers and duties that the
General Assembly is free to give to the
attorney general are lawyer's jobs. They
may not make him the bank commissioner
or the insurance commissioner or the ad-
ministrator of any law. He will be the
lawyer for the person who administers the
law. It is designed to accomplish the same
purpose that was accomplished by defining
matters as legal matters; the problem that
we ran into with the question of: do you
mean legal in the sense of lawful, and it
was said what we meant by "legal" was
lawyer's work. The Committee in its Memo-
randum EB-2 says on lines 31 to 35 on
page 2: "The Committee feels that the
proper role of the attorney general is as a
lawyer and not as an administrator of
executive programs. It therefore chose to
define his office in these terms." It defines
the office by saying chief legal officer. This
amendment says those things that the Gen-
eral Assembly can tell him to do are the
jobs of the chief legal officer.
At one point in the colloquy this morn-
ing it was suggested that this might give
rise to litigation if the attorney general did
something, someone affected by that could
argue that what he did was administrative
and not lawyer's work. Well, it will give
rise to the same litigation if it carries out
|
