Legislation has been introduced in Annapolis that attempts to move nearly all lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of state laws to the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court.
Baltimore City Democratic Delegate Sandy Rosenberg, and Prince George’s County Delegates Joseph Vallario are co-sponsoring the bill.
Rosenberg is the vice chairman and Vallario is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
Neither lawmaker could be reached for comment.
However under their bill, HB 479, the attorney generals office could move the case to move to Anne Arundel County.
Opponents say the bill targets lawsuits like the one filed in Carroll County challenging the constitutionality of last year’s special session of the Maryland General Assembly.
Upper Eastern Shore Delegate Michael Smigel was the lead plaintiff in that suit. He doesn’t like the bill
“I think its absolutely reprehensible that we’re going to create a super political jurisdiction,” Smigel told WBAL News.
Smigel says the bill assumes that judges outside of Anne Arundel County aren’t capable of ruling on these cases, and that’s wrong.
“We should allow the judges in the other jurisdictions to be thought competent enough to hear a constitutional matter,” Smigel said.
In the case of the lawsuit related to the special session, the suit was filed in Carroll County, because one of the plaintiffs was a computer services company owner from that county.
Last month, a Carroll County judge ruled the procedures used in the special session did not violate the state constitution.
Smigel and the other plaintiffs appealed, and the Maryland Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case on March 11.
Smigel says this bill makes it harder for plaintiffs, who would be now forced to go to Annapolis to argue their cases.
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on this bill on February 27.
http://wbal.com/stories/templates/news.aspx?articleid=1665&zoneid=2
http://mlis.state.md.us/2008RS/bills/hb/hb0479f.pdf
Annapolis has gotten totally out of hand. This law would essentially allow our legislature and Governor to violate the constitution without fear of challenge. As long as they have a friendly judge on the bench in Annapolis anyway. It’s obvious that they wish to move all cases that challenge their power to their own backyard where they have a greater chance of winning. This law would remove one of the checks and balances that helps to protect the people and the state constitution. It would also add a burden to any Marylander who wanted to challenge a law that violated the constitution by adding unnecessary cost. The courts are the last chance for reason when our Government won’t listen. To side step the process is criminal. This law threatens our wallets, our rights and our freedom.
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Good ol’ Joe Vallario: they couldn’t get Jessica’s Law through until
Bill O’Rielly exposed him to the entire country. He went from being the
main obstacle to having his name on the bill…typical.
What gets me is that the gang down Annapolis got what they wanted from
the judge from my neck of the woods, and they’re still not happy.
I guess that if they’re going to be miserable, they’re going to make sure
that we’re all at least one degree more miserable.
Vallario is a good one to head up the House Judiciary Committee. He has shown that he is pro criminal, especially pedophiles. He manages to get the Jessica Law so watered down that it is almost meaningless. He is obviously acting at the direction of the three stooges by offering this bill.
Sandy Rosenberg is a worse piece of corrupt garbage than either O’Malley or Vallario. I hope his time is up. Thirty years in the legislature, always sucking up, is far too long. Rosenberg must go!
Nothing like telling the other judges of the state that they arent competent
we need Help Save Maryland because too many of our leaders in Montgomery County and PG County are crooks and are only catering to the Latinos.