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or commissioners as they are called, would
have very limited duties but they are very
important duties and they are judicial in
nature. They will issue warrants of arrest,
they will take collateral, for example, when
a nonresident of Maryland is picked up on
the highway, and has to post collateral or
be placed in jail and not merely sign a
ticket like a resident. The committing
magistrate is the person called out of bed
in the middle of the night; he is the one
who would decide whether a person should
be incarcerated pending hearing and he
sets bail. These are strictly judicial func-
tions.
Also, a committing magistrate is impor-
tant in family disputes. He can many times
resolve disputes without swearing out war-
rants of arrest. You say that is a non-
judicial officer. You say the judge should
not appoint this type of officer. You are
being misled. The courts and judges for
years have appointed special masters and
auditors to hear all sorts of cases in the
equity courts in particular and report back
to the court. No one ever suggested the
court should not have this power.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Dulany,
you have a little less than a half-minute.
DELEGATE DULANY: Courts today
are charged with a great responsibility in
the criminal section of the law, particularly
under the recent interpretation of the U. S.
Supreme Court. They are the ones who are
finally responsible for the administration
of justice and I ask you to vote down the
amendment and support the Committee on
its proposal.
THE CHAIRMAN: Before recognizing
Delegate Johnson, the Chair desires to ac-
knowledge the presence in the gallery of
the Honorable William Hinkle, member of
the House of Delegates from the fourth
district of Baltimore County. Delighted to
have you with us.
(Applause.)
Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
I yield three minutes to Delegate Grant.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Grant.
DELEGATE GRANT: My comments on
this are essentially the same as Delegate
Jett's. I think we are imposing on the ju-
diciary an almost insuperable job. There
are some 900,000 cases handled in the
courts of inferior jurisdiction as opposed
to some 64,000 cases heard in the circuit
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courts. Obviously the majority of the work
in the inferior jurisdictions consists of
warrants, traffic tickets and the like. This
work is going to be handled by a commis-
sioner with some trial supervision in the
actual conduct of the trial by a district
judge.
Actually, the commissioner then is really
going to be performing a judicial function.
We have not left or burdened the Court of
Appeals with appointment of judges of the
intermediate court of appeals; we have not
burdened the intermediate court of appeals
with the appointment of judges of the su-
perior court. We have not burdened the
judges of the superior court with the ap-
pointments, as is apparently done in Illi-
nois of the judges of the inferior court.
I do not think at this point we should
burden the judges of the district court with
the appointment of other judicial officers.
It is a great burden. Apparently they will
have to decide everything about the com-
mission : how long he is going to be there,
what his qualifications should be, what his
pay will be, where the money is going to
come from, what his retirement is, and so
on. It is simply too much to ask a judge
to go out and fill the court room, then
come in and try to dispense justice.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mudd.
DELEGATE MUDD: Mr. Chairman, I
yield three minutes to Delegate Case.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Case.
DELEGATE CASE: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of the Committee of
the Whole: there has been some misinfor-
mation given by Delegate Johnson with
reference to the newness of this term. I
should like to inform the Committee of the
Whole just where it came from, who it has
been submitted to, and what the results
have been.
The whole idea of the district courts was
a result of a report made by the Commit-
tee on Judicial Administration of the
Maryland State Bar Association, sitting in
convention June 20 of last year in Atlantic
City.
The Committee recommended to the As-
sociation that a system of district courts
should be formed and also recommended
that the job of issuing arrest warrants and
other similar functions should be trans-
ferred to a new officer called a commis-
sioner. I think it would be instructive to
this Committee of the Whole if I read what
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