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Would this not in effect nullify the right
of the General Assembly to pass special
laws? I think in the colloquy between you
and the President it has been indicated, at
least, that practically any special law could
in its terms be made a general law. That
being the case, would this not constitu-
tionally prevent the passing age of a
special law by the legislature?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I would
not go so far as to make that universal
declaration, but I would certainly admit
that it would severely limit the ability of
the General Assembly to pass special laws
in the future.
DELEGATE ADKINS: Is that the in-
tent of the amendment, to limit it to the
fullest extent of the actual meaning of the
language?
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: I am not
acquainted with the motive of the sponsor.
I do know why the Committee used "is"
rather than "can be made applicable". I
think you can at least say that the word
suggested by the amendment would severely
cut down on the ability of the General As-
sembly to pass special laws. This really is
a question of philosophy, it seems to me,
and we felt in the Committee on the Legis-
lative Branch that we did not want to im-
pose so severe a limitation, and that is why
we used the word "applicable".
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Beatrice Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Mr. Presi-
dent, could you give us an example of a
special law?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Are
you speaking to Delegate Gallagher, or to
me? I can do it very easily. A bill passed
to award damages to someone who may
have been imprisoned improperly. That
would be a special law.
Delegate Miller.
DELEGATE B. MILLER: Is there a
way that such a law could be general?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : You
could pass a Maryland tort claim which
would make it applicable for a person to
get damages —
DELEGATE B. MILLER: May I ask
a question?
Do you think it is possible, if the General
Assembly wanted to pass a law to compen-
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sate for such damages, that the court might
hold that it would be necessary to pass a
general claims law rather than award dam-
ages in the specific case, because of the
language of the amendment?
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Del-
egate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: If the
amendment were adopted, I think you
could make a strong argument that if there
were any way the General Assembly could
set up a commission or an approach to the
problem of redressing those who had been
unduly aggrieved by the State. In all prob-
ability it would be next to impossible to
pass a law for the relief of John Smith,
because he had been unjustly imprisoned,
or where he has been done an injury by
the State, perhaps by aiding a policeman
and was crippled for life. If the Stale
wanted to pass a law to grant him some
relief for that, it may be that the Court of
Appeals would say "Well, now, you can set
up a Court of Claims or a court of equi-
table distribution of state funds under ap-
propriate circumstances". You are quite
right. As I said to Delegate Adkins, this
would severely limit the power of the Gen-
eral Assembly to pass special laws.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Is
there any further discussion?
Delegate Macdonald.
DELEGATE MACDONALD: Mr. Presi-
dent and fellow delegates, I would like to
rise to support this amendment. I think it
has merit. I think we should limit this mat-
ter of special laws or private laws that
would take care of special situations usually
dealing with one individual or one entity,
because if we do not limit it then it could
be made a subject for favoritism. In addi-
tion we should keep in mind that there is a
rule that all laws are presumed to be con-
stitutional, and that there is a strong pre-
sumption in favor of constitutionality, so
that even though it is limited the courts
will go to great length to sustain the va-
lidity of the law. I think it is a good
amendment.
DELEGATE JAMES (presiding) : Dele-
gate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: Mr. Presi-
dent, I did not read the entire Article III,
section 33, as it exists in the present Con-
stitution: "The General Assembly shall not
pass special or local laws in the following
enumerated cases:" Then it lists the cases.
The section continues: "And the General
Assembly shall pass no special law, for any
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