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tions and follows identically, except for
the change of twenty to twenty-five years,
the Commission draft. This would allow
the General Assembly to fill the vacancy
of any delegate.
THE CHAIRMAN: Will the delegates
who do not have a corrected copy, that is,
with page two printed on the reverse of
page one, please indicate and the pages
will bring you a corrected copy right away.
Committee Recommendation GP-8 should
be printed on the reverse as well as on
the front.
Delegate Adkins.
DELEGATE ADKINS: I would like to
ask the chairman a question. I am troubled
by this provision that the General Assem-
bly may call a constitutional convention
without reference to the people. I wonder
if you would elaborate a little on the Com-
mittee's rationale behind that provision
since it is not in our present law and has
inherent in it a good many dangers.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Adkins, I
could not hear what you said. It is cer-
tainly something about our present law.
DELEGATE ADKINS: I think it is un-
like our present law that the General As-
sembly can call a constitutional convention
without referring it to the people for ratifi-
cation. I find this troublesome. I would
simply like reassurance as to their reasons
for the situation.
DELEGATE BOYER: We found there is
a recent case decided by the Court of Ap-
peals, Board of Election Supervisors v.
Attorney General of Maryland decided in
1967, which states that authority to call a
convention is inherent in the state legisla-
ture. This spells out the present case law
on the subject.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Adkins, the
Chair might add that probably you will
recall there was an opinion of the Attorney
General in 1965 to the effect that the legis-
lature had the inherent power to call the
constitutional convention at any time either
with or without a prior referendum to the
people to take the sense of the people as
to the calling of a convention.
Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: Delegate Boyer, I
was wondering whether the language in
line 13 would provide that a convention
should be convened and recessed within one
year after the vote. The term is the con-
vention shall be held or do you mean it
should be convened within one year?
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DELEGATE BOYER: That is a better
word possibly, Delegate Koss. Convene is
the intent.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: It seems to me that
on the basis of our experience, one year
for a commission to meet and the conven-
tion to meet and complete its business is a
little meager.
DELEGATE BOYER: You have experi-
ence and in that experience would like this
Convention, when you roll up your sleeves
and get down to work, to do the job.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are there any other
questions of the Committee Chairman ? The
Chair hears none.
While he returns to his seat, the Chair
understands that there are a series of
amendments being proposed by Delegates
Needle, Hardwicke, and Sollins. I think
these can be better understood and con-
sidered by the Committee of the Whole
if they are presented first as a group al-
though they will be acted upon separately.
The Chair, therefore, calls on Delegate
Needle and suggests you might come for-
ward ,to the reading desk, Delegate Needle,
in view of the number of amendments in-
volved.
Delegate Adkins, the opinion of the At-
torney General to which I referred is
printed in the final report of the Commis-
sion beginning at page 443.
Will the pages please pass out Amend-
ment B; you might also pass out A, which
is a recapitulation of all of them: A, B, C,
D, E, F, G, H, I, J. Pass out Amendment
A first because that is a summary.
DELEGATE NEEDLE: Mr. Chairman,
about two weeks ago Delegate Gallagher
offered an amendment and then he offered
another amendment, and some member of
this Convention said, Delegate Gallagher,
what is your whole program? It is my de-
sire to present to you my whole program
at the outset.
For that purpose, Delegates Hardwicke
and Sollins and myself have prepared a
memorandum which was distributed about
a week ago which I hope you have in your
books, which presents to you the amended
section on constitutional conventions if you
were to adopt all of the amendments which
I am proposing at this time. It was pre-
pared in that fashion so that you could
see clearly exactly the purpose of each
amendment.
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