A sharply divided Maryland high court ruled Tuesday that a convict’s placement on the Sex Offender Registry qualifies as “punishment” for a sex offense, meaning that all elements of the crime required for placement – such as the victim’s age ...

Tagged with: Apprendi criminal punishment due process Jimmie Rogers sex offender registry

ANNAPOLIS – A Baltimore judge Tuesday assailed as constitutionally suspect Gov. Larry Hogan’s legislative proposal to require a state commission to compile the violent crime sentences handed down by each Maryland circuit court judge, saying the bill could spur harsher ...

Tagged with: crime and punishment due process judicial discretion separation of powers

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear office supply giant Staples Inc.’s argument that Maryland’s tax assessment on fees the Massachusetts-based company collects from its Maryland franchisees violates the Constitution’s Due Process and Interstate Commerce clauses. The justices ...

Tagged with: due process franchisees interstate commerce maryland comptroller

A convicted rapist and murderer’s due process rights were not violated by the 20-year span between the brutal slaying of a teenage girl in Frederick and his indictment and conviction, a Maryland appeals court said in rejecting his argument that ...

Tagged with: cold-case due process

Office-supply giant Staples Inc. is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review and strike down Maryland’s tax assessment on fees the Massachusetts-based company collects from its Maryland franchisees, saying such taxation of an out-of-state entity violates the Constitution’s Due Process ...

Tagged with: commerce clause due process franchise fee income tax royalty fee

John Wilson Taylor thought ahead. Seven years before his death, he drafted a will calling for the creation of a marital trust for his wife consisting of 11 parcels of stocks and bonds, the net income of which would be ...

Tagged with: due process estate tax peter franchot qualified terminable interest property

Whether a victim of human trafficking was a minor must be proven and not presumed in order for the convicted trafficker’s name to be placed on the Maryland Sex Offender Registry, the state’s second-highest court has ruled in keeping an ...

Tagged with: beyond a reasonable doubt due process preponderance of the evidence sex offender registry

ANNAPOLIS — A new Maryland law empowering courts to remove firearms from people found to be a threat to others or themselves has prevented violence while preserving the due-process rights of gun owners, law enforcement and judicial officials told a ...

Tagged with: due process mental health public safety red flag

Montgomery County did not violate a developer’s constitutional rights by adopting a water system amendment to a master zoning plan, changes that devalued the planned development, a federal appeals court ruled last week. In its reported 3-0 decision, the 4th ...

Tagged with: drinking water due process environmental protection equal protection land use Takings Clause watershed zoning

Baltimore County did not violate the constitutional rights of hookah-lounge owners by requiring them to close their establishments by midnight each night, Maryland’s second-highest court ruled Wednesday. In its reported 3-0 decision, the Court of Special Appeals called the ordinance ...

Tagged with: Baltimore County due process equal protection hookah Maryland Court of Special Appeals