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THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Marvin
Smith.
DELEGATE M. SMITH: Mr. Chairman,
I agree with Judge Henderson. I am afraid
there is a little bit of misapprehension
about just what a chief judge is and what
he does. Really, I think some of our breth-
ren would have us believe that he was
some superpowerful individual.
Now, the first three years of my prac-
tice, and I guess the last ten, have been
before a judge who was chief judge of the
circuit, and I have not seen in that capacity
that he had any more power than he had
previously. The difference has been that a
process was issued in his name, and if
somebody were disqualified, why he was the
one who made the assignment.
We have a concept here of a change in
our judicial system. We know that this ju-
dicial system operates more efficiently in
some areas of the State than it has in
some others. We believe that it could oper-
ate more efficiently. We believe it would
be the duty of these chief judges to act
insofar as the administration of that sys-
tem is concerned, to see that it does oper-
ate efficiently. They would be the equivalent
in some respects of the Fred Invernizzi who
is head of the administrative office of the
courts at the present time.
Now, I submit to you, Mr. Chairman,
that to charge a chief judge of the Court
of Appeals with the overall responsibility
for the administration of the judicial sys-
tem of Maryland, and then to tie his hands
by telling him that he is responsible for
the administration of this system, but that
he may have nothing to say about the right
arms to assist him in administration, is a
ridiculous premise.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Mudd.
DELEGATE MUDD: May I yield three
minutes to Delegate Rosenstock, Mr. Chair-
man?
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Rosenstock.
DELEGATE ROSENSTOCK: Mr.
Chairman, fellow delegates, we have cre-
ated here a unified system of courts on a
four-tier level. The purpose of section 5.29
is to permit the chief judg^e in the Court
of Appeals the powers presently given him
under the present Constitution.
In addition, we are spelling out how he
may make that system work effectively,
namely, by naming the chief judges of the
three other tiers of courts.
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By so doing, he will have under him a
responsible judge and person with admin-
istrative abilities who will see that the
various judges in the several tiers work
in the rendering of justice to the people of
Maryland.
We all know that while most of our
judges are very dedicated, once in a while
we find some who just cannot get up the
energy to say on the bench for much more
than nine months out of the year, and he
continues his vacation.
Under this system we feel that the chief
judge will be able to work out vacation
schedules, which must be kept. And who
will police this? The chief judge of the re-
spective tier of courts.
There has been a good deal of wasted
judicial power in this State under the past
administration of the courts. We envisage
that the power given to the chief judge, as
you will notice in the Committee's draft,
has been a limitation on absolute power,
because many of the duties are prescribed
by rule, which means a consensus of opin-
ion between the chief judge and his other
associates on the Court of Appeals.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Johnson.
DELEGATE JOHNSON: Mr. Chairman,
and fellow delegates, perhaps those of us
on the minority, have a little more confi-
dence in our judges on all levels than those
of the majority.
If the majority's premise is correct,
namely, that the chief judge of the Court
of Appeals has to have "his men", to run
a unified judicial system, and I submit that
that is not saying very much for any chief
judge of the Court of Appeals, and if that
premise is correct, does that not also mean
that after the chief judge of the Court of
Appeals retires, and a new chief judge is
designated by the governor, he will then
have to dismiss all of the other chief
judges, those on the other three tiers so
that he can appoint his own "men" in order
to run a proper unified judicial system?
It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Under our proposal there would be ten-
ure on all levels by the chief judges, the
same as on the Court of Appeals; and if
you want to create a situation that will
cause chaos and embarrassment in the ju-
dicial system, then go along with the ma-
jority and permit a chief judge designated
by the governor to appoint anyone, includ-
ing getting rid of appointments that have
previously been designated by the former
chief judge.
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