WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, Governor
Signed May 27, 1988.

No. 4

(Senate Joint Resolution No. 12)

A Senate Joint Resolution concerning

The United States District Court for
the District of Maryland - Southern Division

FOR the purpose of urging the Congress of the United States to
create a Southern Division of the United States District
Court for the District of Maryland.

WHEREAS, The Task Force on the Organization of the U.S.
District Court for the District of Maryland submitted its report
on June 1, 1986, recommending that Congress create a new division
of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to be
known as the "Southern Division" comprising Montgomery, Prince
George's, Calvert, Charles, and St. Mary's Counties; and

WHEREAS, The Task Force found a "strong and compelling need"
for the creation of a court to serve this area and to provide
equal access to the federal courts for the citizens living in
those counties; and

WHEREAS, The Task Force was chaired by a senior member of
the Eastern Shore trial bar and included 3 former presidents of
the Maryland State Bar Association, 2 judges, senior attorneys
from the public and private sectors, and a distinguished layman
from Baltimore; and

WHEREAS, Federal courts should be located in areas where the
major concentrations of population and business are centered; and

WHEREAS, The Task Force found that by 1990, more than
one-third of the population of Maryland will be in the area of
the proposed Southern Division; that this area is the fastest
growing section of the State, growing at almost twice the rate as
the rest of the State; that the population of Baltimore City is
decreasing; that 28% or more of the lawyers in the State reside
in the proposed Southern Division; that the business base of the
5 counties in the proposed Southern Division is approximately
equal to that of Baltimore City and the remaining 18 counties
combined; and that the highest levels of education and median
income in the State are in the proposed Southern Division; and

WHEREAS, One Bankruptcy Court Judge, one U.S. Magistrate,
one-third of the Probation Office, a Deputy Clerk in charge, two

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