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Editorial Advisory Board: Sullivan made the right move in Flynn case
Judge Emmett Sullivan is not letting self-convicted Gen. Michael Flynn off the hook Flynn hung himself on, at least not yet. The Department of Justice seeks to erase Flynn’s prosecution, but Sullivan, the judge who took Flynn’s confession of guilt, has appointed John Gleeson, a retired federal judge and former prosecutor, to challenge the Department […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Affidavit judgments, due process, and emergency proceedings
While we recognize the tremendous challenges facing the Maryland courts during the pandemic and court closure, we raise a troubling issue regarding some district courts that are issuing affidavit judgments during the court closure. Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera’s administrative order notes that only emergency matters will be handled during the courts’ closures and all […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Incarceration under COVID-19
Gov. Larry Hogan has been widely praised for his proactive response to COVID-19. In one area, though, the governor has been less quick to act. Arguing that incarcerated people are safer in penal facilities than in the community, the governor has not instituted a formal policy for decreasing the jail and prison population. But after […]
Editorial Advisory Board: The limits of executive authority
President Donald Trump recently proclaimed that he intended to order states to reopen their economies and lift stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders issued by governors to protect the health and safety of citizens amid the coronavirus pandemic. “When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total,” he said during a press conference […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Front-line workers and child custody issues
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, a growing number of child custody issues are arising among parents who share custody of their minor children. The most looming is whether parents who are considered front-line workers pose a health risk to their children. This question raises even more questions: Should these parents be prohibited from seeing their children […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Baltimore courts need MDEC now
The courts in Baltimore city suffer from decades of neglect – we have written several editorials over the past decade regarding the dire state of Baltimore city’s courthouses. A letter from Judge Barbara Baer Waxman highlights the digital divide between Baltimore and other Maryland jurisdictions. The current public health crisis, which likely will linger in […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Stop aerial surveillance program
It has been reported that Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison agreed to support surveillance flights over Baltimore only to allow the resulting data to inform us whether the program will work or not. He added that his support is “not because we have any belief that it will work.” Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young voted […]
Editorial Advisory Board: The Hon. James F. Schneider, 1947-2020
Judge James F. Schneider’s professional life was one of public service. He was an assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore City, general equity master for the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City and, for over 35 years, a United States bankruptcy judge. Judge Schneider died on April 6, after many years of ill health. In the coming […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Attacks on judiciary diminish courts’ authority
The verbiage excoriating judges, federal and state, from bigwigs of all political parties has ratcheted up to a level that has become unsafe for the independence and respect of the judiciary as a third, and equal, branch of government. Hostile words flow from Gov. Larry Hogan, who is unhappy with crime in Baltimore and is […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Reject the Judicial Transparency Act
House Bill 355, commonly known as the Judicial Transparency Act, is a bill that has no real benefit and should not become law. In it, the State Commission on Criminal Sentencing is to compile information on crimes and sentencing policy and practice. Its report is to be compiled each year and provided to the General […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Md. must end anomaly of judicial elections
Ten years ago we wrote: “Just as surely as the swallows annually return to Capistrano, each winter advocates for and against Maryland’s current system of electing circuit court judges line up to do battle in Annapolis.” Nothing has changed. Recently Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera once again advocated for a constitutional amendment that would abolish […]
Editorial Advisory Board: Md. should keep judicial elections
Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera of the Court of Appeals, our highest court, has come out in favor of stripping the voters of their only real opportunity to hold state judges accountable for their performance. She proposes to end contested elections for the judges of circuit courts, our trial court of general jurisdiction. We dissent. […]
