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THE CH AIRMAN: Delegate White.
DELEGATE WHITE: Mr. Chairman
and members of the Convention. It is with
some reluctance that I rise to oppose this
amendment, but I feel that I have a duty
to perform.
I am puzzled by one question and that is
this. How shall we reconcile brevity with
the idea of meeting the needs of the people
who sent us down here.
Now, if we decide in behalf of brevity,
I have one suggestion, and I am not at-
tempting to be facetious. This Convention
has the authority to abolish the entire Con-
stitution as it is now written and go home
to leave it all to the legislature. We can
just tear the Avhole Constitution up by a
majority vote and go home and let the
writers on the Style Committee do their
job while we are at home having Christmas
dinner.
Now, we have reached an important is-
sue. We have discussed at some length the
possible payment of damages to citizens
who have been injured by governmental ac-
tion in the acquisition of land or by some
governmental action which might inad-
vertently hurt a citizen.
Now, if we are going to have this same
test I suggest that we give this some
thought. Since we have been here we have
learned that the legislature does not have
adequate facilities. We have been here
enough to look around. They do not even
have rooms, they do not have clerks, and
they do not have sufficient staff. They do
not have sufficient buildings and yet we
are heaping all these duties on them and
saying let them do it.
I think I voted for my good friend on the
right almost consistently, but I think it is
time to put a brake on it, and I ask you to
defeat this amendment.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in favor of the amend-
ment?
(Call for the question.)
THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Willoner to speak in op-
position.
DELEGATE WILLONER: Mr. Chair-
man, I speak in opposition to this amend-
ment, and I think my voting has demon-
strated a consistent position for constitu-
tional purity, more consistant than Mr.
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Scanlan, because I was the only delegate to
vote against the militia provision.
This is prohibiting the state from pun-
ishing an individual as in the taking of
property, and we thought so much about
property that we thought the damages
should be repaved. Here we have a chance
to protect people.
Should the word go out that we think
more of property than people, it would
seem to me to be a horrible principle.
This is a prohibition on the government
to keep them from pleading sovereign im-
munity. I think it is important. The history
of over 200 years that this doctrine has
been in this State, is that it has not been
eroded enough to make it a serious inroad.
Thirty other states have eliminated this
by court decision. There is a whole body of
law on this. Every person in this state is
liable except the State of Maryland. We
can live with it, the State of Maryland
should be able to.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you ready for
the question?
(Call for the question.)
The Clerk will ring the quorum bell.
The question arises on the adoption of
Amendment No. 9 to Committee Recom-
mendation R&P-2.
A vote Aye is a vote in favor of Amend-
ment No. 9. A vote No is a vote against.
Cast your vote.
Has every delegate voted? Does any
delegate desire to change his vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 38 votes in the affirmative
and 72 in the negative, the motion is lost.
The amendment is rejected.
The pages have distributed to your desk
amendment AJ. Please mark it Amend-
ment AJ. Please mark it Amendment No.
8. It has already been adopted.
Delegate Kiefer, do you now desire to
offer your Amendment D?
DELEGATE KIEFER: Yes, Mr. Chair-
man.
THE CHAIRMAN: This will be Amend-
ment No. 10. It has already been distributed
to your desk. The amendment has been
proposed by Delegate Kiefer. Is there a
second?
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