THE CHAIRMAN: The Chair recog-
nizes Delegate Burdette.
DELEGATE BURDETTE: Mr. Chair-
man, may I ask the Chairman of the Com-
mittee a question?
THE CHAIRMAN: Will the Chairman
yield?
DELEGATE KOSS: Yes.
DELEGATE BURDETTE: I am inter-
ested and hope I do not understand that
the Committee takes an amendment posi-
tion or that there is involved essentially in
this vote the question whether the language
be emergency, nonsuspendable or some
other language. I am dubious of the Com-
mittee's language "special legislation", but
I understand that question is not involved
in this vote.
DELEGATE KOSS: That is true, Dele-
gate Burdette. The Committee memoran-
dum, I think, explicitly says whether it is
called special or not was really not the
point.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Taylor.
DELEGATE H. TAYLOR: I rise to op-
pose the motion for reconsideration. Ladies
and gentlemen of the Convention, the rea-
son for trying to change this word from
"emergency" to "special" or maybe some
other word is because I think the use of the
word emergency sometimes impels the Gen-
eral Assembly to engage in deception. As
a for instance of this, I will give you a case
that happened in Prince George's County.
We have, you may not have heard of her,
a girl named Jane Sawyer who is better
known throughout the State of Maryland
as Baby Jane. There was a law passed in
the General Assembly, known as the Baby
Jane Bill.
This girl was a former beautician, for
some department of the Navy. She is
twenty-four years old. She is a clerk for
the Supervisors of Elections of Prince
George's County, and she holds a $10,000
a year job.
At the last gubernatorial election there
was a change in the majority party's con-
trol of the executive office and the General
Assembly said, "It is inimical to the public
health or safety to the State of Maryland
that this girl should not remain as clerk
to the Board of Supervisors of Elections."
I say to you, ladies and gentlemen, it is
wrong for us to compel our General As-
sembly to engage in such shenanigans.
Therefore, I ask you not to vote for this |
motion for consideration, but to study with
us for a better word than emergency to
characterize this type of legislation.
DELEGATE SCANLAN: Would you
prefer that the General Assembly say Baby
Jone was something special?
(Laughter.)
DELEGATE H. TAYLOR: I can see
that she is.
THE CHAIRMAN: For what purpose
does Delegate Case rise?
DELEGATE CASE: To speak in favor
of the motion for reconsideration. I take it
Baby Jane was substantive if she is some-
thing special and not an emergency.
Mr. Chairman, members of the Commit-
tee of the Whole, I think we have to stop
and consider exactly what the purpose of
this particular sentence in section 2 is. The
purpose is to define a nonsuspendable law.
It seems to me there ought to be some yard-
stick by which the General Assembly can
decide whether a law is to be suspendable
or not suspendable other than by the tech-
nical delineation, "special legislation."
The definition of an emergency act has
been before the Court of Appeals in a
number of cases. The Chairman pro tem
suggests just last Friday one situation.
There is an even better illustration. I think
of a case that came out of Baltimore City
some fifteen or twenty years ago in which
the Court of Appeals ruled that a bill to
provide adequate sewage treatment in an
area of Baltimore City in which there were
sewers in the street was not necessary for
the preservation of the public health and
welfare, and therefore was not properly
definable as an emergency law.
I think what the Committee here has
overlooked is that the term, "emergency
legislation," whether the legislature is be-
guiled or not is always something for re-
view by the courts. Also the Committee
overlooks when they grasp the word "spe-
cial legislation" that the words, "emer-
gency legislation," have been a part of the
lexicon of the law of this State for many
years.
We know what it means and it makes
the legislators, those who are conscientious,
think before they act because the law con-
tains a very long and somewhat complex
and perhaps a little prolix, but nevertheless
clear clause defining emergency.
I think we know what this means. We
lawyers who have to deal with this sub- |
