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view by virtue of this amendment and the
view of the majority concurring in the re-
port now before you for consideration.
It is our view, which we hope you will
adopt, that the substance of what the com-
missioners are authorized to do be as con-
tained in our report, namely, that they may
exercise powers only with respect to war-
rants of arrest, bail, collateral and incar-
ceration pending hearing. The words Dele-
gate Macdonald proposes to delete by his
amendment are these: "and then only as
prescribed by rule."
In our view, there is no necessity for
concurrent authority in the legislature with
respect to the exercise of these substantive
powers by the commissioners. In our view,
the exercise of the powers prescribed for
the commissioners in our recommendation
is purely in the area of practice and pro-
cedure. Accordingly, we have advisedly in-
cluded in our recommendation the provi-
sion that the exercise of these powers shall
be only by rule, consistent with our over-
all recommendation that in matters of prac-
tice and procedure, in housekeeping, if you
please, the operations of these commis-
sioners as appointees of the district judge
be controlled by rule.
We, therefore, ask you to vote against
this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any delegate
desire to speak in favor of the amendment?
Delegate Willoner?
DELEGATE WILLONER: Mr. Chair-
man, once again we are confronted with
the problem we were confronted with sev-
eral times before. I would like to say again
that it is not a matter that would in fact
be something the legislature would be in-
terested in, but is a matter of principle
and I would just like to restate that propo-
sition.
THE CHAIRMAN: Does any other dele-
gate desire to speak in opposition to the
amendment? Are you ready for the ques-
tion? Delegate Marion.
DELEGATE MARION: Mr. Chairman,
my view of this may not be correct, but,
as I see it, there is a distinction between
what this amendment would propose to do
here and what Delegate Macdonald has
achieved by Amendments 6 "and 12, where
he has inserted the words "law or" before
the word "rule" in prior recommended sec-
tions of our report.
This is not so much the granting of a
power to the court as permitting the court
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by rule to limit the authority of commis-
sioners. What he would ask be done here
by deleting all of these words is to remove
from this section the authority to limit the
power of commissioners as granted by the
Constitution, or to spell out how those pow-
ers might be exercised by these commis-
sioners.
It would seem to me that to achieve the
purpose which he advanced in detailing his
reasoning for offering this amendment, it
would be more consistent were he to have
followed the language that he had asked
be inserted in prior amendments rather
than remove the limitation of the entire
clause at the end of this section. I would
urge the defeat of the amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Are you ready for
the question?
(Call for the question.)
The question arises on the adoption of
Amendment No. 15 to Committee Recom-
mendation JB-1. A vote Aye is a vote in
favor of Amendment No. 15. A vote No is
a vote against. Cast your vote.
(Whereupon, a roll call vote was taken.)
THE CHAIRMAN: Has every delegate
voted? Does any delegate desire to change
his vote?
(There was no response.)
The Clerk will record the vote.
There being 31 votes in the affirmative
and 87 in the negative, the motion fails.
The amendment is rejected.
The page will please distribute amend-
ment BD. Please mark this Amendment
No. 16. Please also add to the sponsoring
delegates the name of Delegate Dukes. The
amendment is sponsored by Delegates Bothe
and Dukes, Amendment No. 16. The Clerk
will read the amendment.
READING CLERK: Amendment No. 16
to Committee Recommendation JB-1, by
Delegates Bathe and Dukes: On page 4
Section 5.11 Commissioners, in lines 2 and
3, strike out the words "collateral and"
and insert in lieu thereof the following:
"terms of pre-trial release or".
THE CHAIRMAN: The amendment
having been seconded, the Chair recognizes
Delegate Bothe to speak to the amendment.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Mr. Chairman,
fellow delegates, the purpose of this amend-
ment is two-fold: first, to make clear that
the power of the Commissioners will ex-
tend to authority to release people on their
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