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Now advancing to the point of our meet-
ing of the Committee on Personal Rights
and the Preamble, one of our witnesses was
Joseph Rauh. In answer to a question by
me asking for an interpretation of state
action, he said : "I think today's draft
would, by the present Supreme Court, be
interpreted to include licensees, to give an
example. Whether it would go so far as
including the permission of private dis-
crimination, I do not know."
I asked, for example, what the effect
would be if people wanted to get together
and form a private hunting lodge out on an
island in the Chesapeake Bay and they
wished to incorporate. This would require
state action.
Now, after they had incorporated, and
someone then came along and decided he
wanted to join that club, they could not
deny him the right to join that club. Is that
correct? Would a corporate charter con-
stitute state action? Mr. Rauh said, "That
would be correct, in my judgment. The
State gives a corporate franchise with the
protections. You get the corporate fran-
chise because it has certain benefits from
the State. If the State is going to give
those benefits, I do not believe it can then
permit the discrimination."
In answer to a question of Delegate
Murray, "Is it not a fact that this pro-
posal goes way, way beyond the question
of licensee? Is this not true?" Mr. Rauh
replied "It goes beyond it. I would assume
that the licensee is still the most important
part of it, but I did add the others; yes, it
does go beyond it."
Delegate Child asked: "Now, Mr. Rauh,
we are only talking here as delegates to a
state Constitutional Convention. And
when we speak of governmental action, we
speak of state governmental action. Now,
with that explanation, do you agree or not,
that we should follow this recommenda-
tion?"
He answered: "Well, I guess I would
have to say I do not because I think if you
were just to take section 1.04 in its present
language, it will take the Supreme Court
of Maryland," he means the Court of Ap-
peals, "a dozen decisions and, if my life
depended on it, I do not know whether they
would say a licensee could discriminate
or could not under section 1.04 as it is at
the present time. I simply do not know how
those words would be interpreted."
In conclusion, I would like to quote from
the CORNELL LAW QUARTERLY, in referring
to the decision of State v. Brown. It said:
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"All state legislative and judicial action
granting or sanctioning private rights as
against the 14th Amendment guarantees
must not be made the springboard for a
sort of 'bootstrap' doctrine whereby the
victims of private discrimination convert
judicially unrecognizable claims into con-
stitutional rights. Otherwise, the rights of
a private owner would be at the mercy of
the first victim of discrimination with
enough initiative to begin judicial pro-
ceedings."
"Thus an important social and psycho-
logical safety valve may be improvidently
sealed if legislative and judicial recognition
of the right of self-help is held to constitute
a sufficient state connection under the 14th
Amendment."
THE CHAIRMAN: Your time has ex-
pired.
Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: How much
time do I have left, Mr. President?
THE CHAIRMAN : Five and a half min-
utes.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Delegate
Clark, one minute.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate James
Clark.
DELEGATE J. CLARK: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee: I
rise to support the Committee Report and
the amendment which they have offered.
I think that the Committee did an ex-
cellent job but I believe that the amend-
ment is a better job. This is an area which
is extremely important to many, many
people in this State, and I believe that the
amendment emphasizes and underscores
what I hope to be the intent of this
Convention.
I certainly hope that the amendment will
be adopted.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mitchell.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: Delegate
Hargrove.
DELEGATE HARGROVE: Thank you,
sir.
DELEGATE MITCHELL: One minute.
THE CHAIRMAN: One minute, Dele-
gate Hargrove.
DELEGATE HARGROVE: Mr. Chair-
man, fellow delegates, I think one of the
first things we learned in this Convention
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