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Roll call.
(Whereupon, the roll was called.)
THE PRESIDENT: Has every delegate
answered roll call?
The Clerk will record the roll call.
There being a quorum present, the Con-
vention is in session.
The Chair recognizes Delegate Powers.
DELEGATE POWERS: Mr. President,
I move the Convention resolve itself into
a Committee of the Whole for the purpose
of resuming consideration of the general
orders of the day.
(W hereupon t the motion was seconded.)
THE PRESIDENT: The motion has
been seconded. All in favor, signify by
saying Aye; opposed, No. The Ayes have
it and it is so ordered.
(WJicrcupon, at 7:42 P.M. the Convention
revolved itself into the Committee of the
Whole.)
(The mace was removed by the Sergeant-
at-Arms.)
COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE
DECEMBER 11, 1967—7:42 P.M.
PRESIDENT H. VERNON ENEY,
PRESIDING
THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee of
the Whole will please come to order.
We shall resume consideration of R&P-1.
We have under consideration Amend-
ment No. 5, offered by Lloyd Taylor. Your
copy of the amendment should be corrected
so that in line 8 you strike out, beginning
with the semicolon, all of line 9, and the
words "national origin,".
Delegate Hutchinson.
DELEGATE HUTCHINSON: Mr. Pres-
ident, I would like this Convention to wel-
come a group of people from Essex Com-
munity College, men and women who are
taking a free course on -the Constitutional
Convention who are accompanied by their
instructors, Mr. Ted Venetoulis, and Dr.
Gardner Pond. They are in the rear gal-
lery, and I hope that we give them a nice
warm welcome. (Applause.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Taylor to speak to Amend-
ment No. 5.
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DELEGATE L. TAYLOR: Mr. Chair-
man, this amendment is an addition to the
minority report. It is what should be done
to protect minority groups in the State of
Maryland.
Last week the Committee gave special
consideration and protection to bona fide
farmers in the area of farm assessments.
My amendment is not directed to special
consideration or favoritism to a group, but
to the elimination of discrimination against
the economically deprived citizen.
Economic favoritism toward a multitude
of citizens has been practiced in this coun-
try for a long time since the founding
fathers wrote the United States Constitu-
tion. When Patrick Henry was attending
the Constitutional Convention for the State
of Virginia, he was quite upset about the
fact that the economic interests were in
control at the Philadelphia Convention. He
made statements to the effect that the
United States Constitution was being writ-
ten for the advantage of certain economic
interests.
Out of that particular incident, pressure
was brought for the enactment of the Bill
of Rights, and we received that Bill of
Rights in what you might call a com-
promise to the economically determined
Constitution.
In most cases, the economic favoritism
has worked to the disadvantage of the poor,
the low income people. Somehow the 14th
Amendment, the equal protection doctrine,
has failed to cover the low income group or
to shield the poor from the many inequities
from which they usually suffer.
I want to read from current events and
documents, to support this amendment.
First I shall read from a speech by Vice
President Humphrey which is reported in
the Congressional Record. He made this
speech to the 9th Annual Meeting of the
American Bar Association in Honolulu,
Hawaii. When he was talking to the mem-
bers of the Bar Association he talked about
poverty, and he said: "For, as Justice
Fortas recently put it, the law, to the poor,
is a system devised 'by the establishment
— of the establishment — for the establish-
ment.' "This is a law which is known in the
ghetto, not as the blindfolded goddess of
even-handed justice, but as 'the man' —
capricious, arbitrary, authoritarian, foreign
— worthy of fear but not of respect."
Then he went on to compliment the
lawyers in their very courageous fight in
bringing certain legal rights to the fore.
He said that many lawyers in the City of
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