|
gress all the time, because under some acts
of Congress some federal agencies are au-
thorized to redress, for example, in a case
of a prison, a certain type of jurisdiction.
This was his suggestion as to how this
amendment could be made perfectly accept-
able to the federal government.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: What I am
trying to do is to point up Delegate Sher-
bow's question a little more.
If there is a very large secret plant, like
an atomic energy plant, being proposed
for the State of Maryland, and the State
of Virginia is also a competitor for that
atomic energy plant, then this requirement
of action by Congress might block the
whole thing, because the Senators from
Virginia might be more powerful than the
Senators from Maryland.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Storm.
DELEGATE STORM: If I might re-
spond to that, this could not be the case
as far as this being a disadvantage.
Now, whether or not the Senators from
Virginia are more powerful, I cannot an-
swer, but this language, "except to such
extent as may specifically be required by
an act of Congress," was inserted exactly
for the reason that if the federal govern-
ment wanted any particular type of juris-
diction rather than concurrent jurisdic-
tion, they could get it even without an act
of Congress if the previous act of Congress
had authorized one of the federal agencies
to ask for particular jurisdiction.
Do you follow what I am trying to say?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Bennett.
DELEGATE BENNETT: Yes, I think
I follow you, but nevertheless I think a
particular law of Maryland requiring a
particular congressional act might operate
as a road block to prevent the location of
that institution in Maryland.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Storm.
DELEGATE STORM: If I might re-
spond to that, this language was inserted
to guard against any possibility like that,
and this language was suggested by the
gentleman from the Department of Justice
who had chaired 23 separate federal
agencies.
You see, unfortunately, they do not have
an attorney general over there who can
give one binding opinion for all of the fed-
eral agencies, but when you get twenty-
|
three of them, including the Department of
Defense, the Department of Justice, Atomic
Energy, and 20 others and they all agree,
then I think we are in pretty good shape.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Storm's
time for questions has expired.
Is there any further discussion with re-
spect to Amendment No. 1?
Delegate Scanlan.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: I would like to
oppose the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: You may speak.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: The amend-
ment in its expanded form and the original
proposal in its shorter form I think are
entirely unnecessary. As the majority ad-
mits, the recommended provision, at least
the original proposal, is basically the same
as the statutory provision, as is now found
in the Code.
There is no question about the power of
the Maryland General Assembly to deal
with this subject, to insert in the Code lan-
guage which is identical with Amendment
No. 1, if it so desires. However, to freeze
it into the constitution I think first is un-
necessary and, second, it presents the prob-
lem that Judge Sherbow called attention to.
There may be a time when the United
States, for instance, would want to put the
patent office or another larger federal fa-
cility in Maryland, and it is entirely pos-
sible that the restriction set forth in
Amendment No. 1 might tie the hands of
the Maryland legislature and the Maryland
authorities in negotiating the type of ces-
sion to be agreed upon.
Even the language of Amendment No. 1
I do not think furnishes the protection that
might be ideal in some cases. The last
clause of it says "any laws of this State
continuing in effect within the limits of or
on such lands shall not be effective if in-
consistent with the governmental uses, pur-
poses and functions for which the land was
acquired or is used by the United States",
so even under that language, under the
last analysis, the question comes down to
one of negotiation.
If the United States and the Department
of Justice, or whatever agency was repre-
senting the United States, insisted that
certain laws should not be applicable in the
ceded territory and Maryland really wanted
the United States to bring the facilities to
Maryland, undoubtedly it would recede
from its position, so really the statutory
|
