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Top 5: ‘He had a 25-year-old mind in a 91-year-old body’
//March 9, 2012
The Baltimore legal community mourning the loss of a longtime prosecutor and a Baltimore County restaurant winning a round in a battle over its parking lot are among the Top 5 legal affairs stories of the week. The most-read story of the week by far, however, was a federal judge’s ruling striking down Maryland’s handgun permit law. The Top 5 stories are:
1. Maryland handgun permit law found unconstitutional — by Steve Lash
A federal judge in Baltimore has struck down part of Maryland’s handgun permit law as violating the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
Judge Benson E. Legg said the law’s demand that applicants show “good and substantial reason” to carry a gun is overly broad and not “reasonably adapted” to the state’s substantial interest in ensuring public safety.
2. Legal community mourns Alex Yankelove — by Ben Mook
In describing the late Alexander Yankelove, friends and colleagues of the man who spent nearly four decades at the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s office paint a picture of a tireless worker whose unflagging professionalism influenced generations of young prosecutors — including one who went on to become governor of the state.
Yankelove, 91, passed away on March 3. At his funeral the following day, lawyers, judges, prosecutors and friends joined his family to pay their respects.
The Maryland Board of Public Works is set to vote to approve a $385,000 a settlement in a federal lawsuit against the Maryland State Police by anti-abortion protesters arrested in 2008.
The protesters filed the lawsuit against the state police and others after they were arrested, jailed and subjected to strip searches following a demonstration involving graphic signs of aborted fetuses near the intersection of Routes 24 and 924 in Bel Air.
4. Oregon Grille wins round in fight over paved lot — by Steve Lash
A Cockeysville restaurant has won the latest round in a longstanding zoning and court battle with nearby residents over a parking lot they say violates Baltimore County law and an agreement the eatery signed in 1995.
In a 3-0 ruling, the Court of Special Appeals said the Falls Road Community Association should have taken its case against the county and the owner of the Oregon Grille to the county’s zoning authorities, not the courts.
5. Lobbyist wants his law license back — by Steve Lash
The fate of lobbyist Ira C. Cooke’s bid for reinstatement to the Maryland bar likely rests with the newest judge on the state’s highest court.But Judge Robert N. McDonald, who joined the Court of Appeals Jan. 24, gave no indication of support or opposition to Cooke’s cause during oral argument Tuesday on his motion for reinstatement.
The 30-minute session followed the court’s disclosure in November that it was deadlocked 3-3 on whether to reinstate Cooke, who had consented to disbarment in 2005 after being convicted of commercial bribery, grand theft and conspiracy in California.
