Author: delsandy

Same thing for Supreme Court decisions

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     Society wins not only when the guilty are convicted, but when criminal trials are fair; our system of the administration of justice suffers when any accused is treated unfairly.

Justice William O. Douglas wrote that in the majority opinion in Brady v. Maryland, where the Supreme Court held that the government cannot withhold evidence favorable to an accused, upon request, where the evidence is material to either guilt or punishment, regardless of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution.

As a legislator, I know that enacting a bill isn’t the end of the process.  You have to make sure it’s correctly implemented.

Same thing for Supreme Court decisions, according to an editorial in Sunday’s New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/opinion/sunday/beyond-the-brady-rule.html

Prosecutors don’t always inform a defendant’s lawyer of evidence that could be favorable to the accused.  The Brady rule has been limited by subsequent rulings of the court, and there is virtually no punishment for prosecutors who flout the rule.

A North Carolina statute requires prosecutors in felony cases, before trial, to make available to the defense “the complete files of all law enforcement agencies, investigatory agencies and prosecutors’ offices involved in the investigation of the crimes committed or the prosecution of the defendant.”

Yesterday, I asked the lobbyist for the Office of the Public Defender if he was interested in pursuing a similar law in Marylam was interested in pursuing a similar law Maryland.

“We would be very interested in discussing this,” he responded.

We’re meeting next week.  Other lawyers will be joining us.

One of them is Clint Bamberger, my lead paint and legal adviser and mentor.

He represented John Brady before the Supreme Court fifty years ago this month.

Standard but misleading rhetoric

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This letter to the editor didn’t require much effort on my part.

I helped to write it more than 20 years ago.

The Sun had run an op-ed on abortion with the standard but misleading right-wing rhetoric.

Or as President Obama said of the gun lobby after the background check was defeated, “They willfully lied.”

I let the words of our law speak for themselves.

 

Dear Editors:

I write as someone who supports making reproductive choices available to all women, not as one of “those who support ‘choice’ at all costs,” one of many misleading characterizations in Marta Mossburg’s op-ed.

“Abortion is virtually available on demand throughout a pregnancy,” she asserts.

Under Maryland law, if the fetus is viable, an abortion may be performed only if “necessary to protect the life or health of the woman or if the fetus is affected by genetic defect or serious deformity or abnormality.”

“A doctor can override the requirement [for parental notification] for almost any reason,” Ms. Mossburg writes.

Our law provides that a physician may not give notice if “in the professional judgment of the physician, notice to the parent or guardian may lead to physical or emotional abuse to the minor, the minor is mature and capable of giving informed consent to an abortion; or notification would not be in the best interest of the minor.”

The people of Maryland have already passed judgment on these statutes.  They approved them by a 62-38% margin after they were petitioned to referendum in 1992.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/readersrespond/bs-ed-abortion-letter-20130509,0,1345277.story

Many decisions were made

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“Things went very smoothly for the death penalty this session,” a reporter began an interview with me this weekend.

 

`“In retrospect, it seems that way after a bill passes,” I replied, “but along the way many decisions were made that turned out to be right.”

 

I hope that comes as no surprise to you.

 

I hope that this diary has given you some insight into the process by which a bill becomes a law or does not.

 

Last night, for instance, the Senate version of one of my bills needed to be enacted.

 

Around 9 pm, it passed the Senate.  I wanted to make sure it didn’t get lost in the pile of bills on the Speaker’s rostrum.

 

I spoke to one of his aides about it.  The bill was on the rostrum. She knew it was the crossfile (Senate version) of my bill.

 

Soon thereafter, it was taken up and passed.

 

—-

 

My end-of session summary can be found at http://www.delsandy.com/2013-session-summary/

Last bill hearing and walking with the bases loaded

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I had my last bill hearing of the session today.

I didn’t read my testimony, but it took a minute (It seemed much longer) before I saw that look of recognition on the chair’s face.

I had successfully summarized what the bill would do.

For my bills that have already passed the Senate, the next step is to “make sure the legislation gets implemented,” as I said to an advocate on the phone.

—

I could very well be on the House floor when the first pitch is thrown at Camden Yards Friday afternoon.

However, I will begin the session with this prayer:

Baseball as a Road to God is the title of a new book written by the President of New York University, John Sexton. 

It “uses the secular sport of baseball to explore subjects ordinarily associated with religion—prayers, altars, sacred space, faith, doubt, conversion, miracles, blessings, curses, saints and sinners,” wrote Doris Kearns Goodwin in her review.

Baseball is also analogous to the legislative process.  There’s someone at every base ready to tag your bill out, trying to prevent your legislation from reaching home, returned passed to its house of origin.  

Whatever your faith, hope springs eternal at the home opener.  This year, for the first time in many years, with justification for Orioles fans. 

Tribute will be paid to Earl Weaver before today’s first pitch. 

Religion was not on Earl’s mind on Opening Day.  His focus was on bringing the best 25 players north from Florida. 

But one season, Pat Kelly informed his skipper that there would be a prayer service in the clubhouse on Sunday mornings. 

“Join us and walk with the Lord,” Kelly urged his skipper.

Weaver replied, “I’d rather have you walk with the bases loaded.” 

Reading testimony after a meeting beforehand

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Don’t read your testimony.

Know what you’re talking about (Why we need this bill) and don’t worry if you pause or stumble occasionally.

That’s better than not making eye contact with the committee members because you’re reading what’s below you on the witness table.

I preach that to my law students and follow that rule myself.

Except when I get an email that my bill on the allocation of slots revenues among the neighborhoods near Pimlico Race Track is about to be heard in 10 minutes in the Budget and Taxation Committee and we’re nowhere near the end of the floor debate on the gun bill.

“You’re going to testify for the bill,” I told my staffer, “and you can read the testimony.”

An hour later, he responded, “I didn’t read it verbatim. I had enough time to prepare oral remarks. No question. A few nods.”

“I will talk to committee members when I can,” I responded.

There was no need to do so, he informed me. “Senator Jones asked for them to move it quickly after the hearing.”  It got a favorable report.

Before the hearing, I had met with the senator, who represents Baltimore City, and gained her support.

—-

My floor speech about the 2nd Amendment on Tuesday is discussed in The Free State Press, with a link to my remarks.

http://thefreestatepress.com/bullying-partisanship-assault-on-the-bill-of-rights-dominate-house-gun-debate/

Not unlimited or speechless

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I was ready to quote Justice Scalia liberally.

During tonight’s floor debate, one of my colleagues said, “The rights protected by the 2nd Amendment are inalienable.  They can’t be restricted by the governor, the legislature, or the courts.”

Justice Scalia ruled otherwise in the majority opinion in Heller v. District of Columbia.

“Like most rights,” he wrote, “the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.”

“Should I respond?” I asked my seatmate, Delegate McIntosh.

              “Wait til tomorrow when the final vote on the bill will be taken,” she advised.

               I agreed.

 —

I wrote too soon.

Shortly after I posted the above, one of my colleagues said that our Second Amendment right came from God and is unalienable.

I had to speak.

“None of the protections in the Bill of Rights is absolute.  The first Amendment says that ‘Congress shall make no law’ but there are limitations on the rights of free speech and a free press.”

And I did quote Justice Scalia.

 

Batting .500 in the Budget

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You win some and you lose some.

I’m talking about the Governor’s supplemental budget, not the baseball season.

There’s money for expanded services for the mentally ill but no money for the Race to the Tots grant program for pre-Kindergarten classes.

Shortly after the Newtown shootings last December, I met with advocates for the mentally ill.

“We don’t want the discussion in Annapolis to be limited to when the mentally ill should be denied guns,” I said.

We decided to introduce legislation outlining the unmet needs for services, the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Safety Net Act of 2013.

Three items from this bill were included in today’s budget: expanded crisis response services, crisis intervention teams, and mental health first aid.

The proposed appropriation is $3.5 million.

My bill was not the only factor that prompted the Governor to increase these vital services, but it played a part.

Race to the Tots, on the other hand, was not funded.  However, we’ve already begun strategizing on how to make a better and more effective case for next year’s budget.

The best person to lobby the Governor

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“Is there someone who can make our last pitch to Gov?”

 

I sent that email to a colleague and a lobbyist first thing this morning.

 

We have a bill where the outcome is uncertain, and Governor O’Malley’s support would be very helpful.

 

We quickly decided on who would be the best person to lobby the Governor.

 

The highlight of today’s floor session was a visit from Ravens receiver Torrey Smith, the Lombardi trophy for winning the Super Bowl in his grasp.

            Governor O’Malley joined him on the rostrum, then stepped aside for the picture taking.

            “I’m the best person to lobby the Governor,” I audibled to myself.

            I made my pitch and got a positive  response.

            Results to be known before the clock runs out on the session.

Rational basis and a proud student

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Can a law prefer males over females in the administration of an estate to which they both have equal claims?

Bills dealing with trusts and estates are heard by my committee but not this one.

Idaho passed such a law in 1864.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of the attorneys who successfully argued before the Supreme Court in 1971 that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

I first read that case, Reed v. Reed, as a law student in 1974 in a class entitled Sex Discrimination and the Law.  The professor was Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Much of the oral argument today on the Defense of Marriage Act dealt with whether DOMA violated the Equal Protection Clause because it treated same-sex marriages differently than heterosexual unions.

Justice Ginsburg reminded the Court that “in the very first gender discrimination case, Reed v. Reed, the court did something it had never done in the history of the court under rational basis” [the test for determining that a law is constitutional if there is a rational basis for its enactment].  “The Court said this is rank discrimination and it failed.”

I attended today’s oral argument.

It made me very proud to have been a student of Professor Ginsburg.

Running out of time

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Time is a very precious commodity, especially during the last two weeks of the legislative session.

 

Today, we held our first hearing on Senate bills.

 

After one senator had testified on his legislation, I asked, “Is your bill identical to the version that has passed the House?”

 

“Yes” was the reply.

 

I would have told the committee that before any questions were asked.

 

Another senator fumbled with his laptop before presenting a power point on a bill that had already passed the House.

 

“’If you have the votes, sit down and shut up,” I reminded my seatmate.  “In this instance, sit down and keep your laptop off.”

 

An advocate came to me with a letter asking the Governor to fund a program in his supplemental budget, which he could submit as soon as tomorrow.

 

“Instead of spending time getting more members to sign the letter,” I advised, “get it up to the Governor’s office.”

  • My Key Issues:

  • Pimlico and The Preakness
  • Our Neighborhoods
  • Pre-Kindergarten
  • Lead Paint Poisoning