Court Ruling

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding a lower court's ruling that California's Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriage, was unconstitutional is surely a good outcome and an advance for equality. Already backers of same-sex marriage in Maryland, including Gov.Martin O'Malley, are expressing optimism that it will provide a boost to their efforts here. But the 2-1 opinion is so narrowly drawn that, even if it is upheld by theU.S. Supreme Court in an inevitable appeal, it may have little bearing on the situation in Maryland and elsewhere.

Gov.Martin O'Malley said a federal court's ruling that California's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional could buoy his push to legalize the unions in Maryland. O'Malley, a Democrat, said that the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision Tuesday will impact the debate in Maryland. "I think there are some who - even given their opposition today - understand that over the long term the principle of equity, of civil rights, will ultimately prevail," O'Malley said.

The state would have to hire 284 new public defenders to comply with a recent Court of Appeals ruling requiring lawyers for indigent defendants at thousands of annual bail hearings, according to an affidavit filed Thursday by Maryland Public Defender Paul DeWolfe. "I have determined that the Office is unable to comply with the court's mandate at this time in light of its current resource constraints," DeWolfe wrote in the eight-page, sworn document, filed in the state's highest court.

State legislators have drafted emergency bills to reverse a Maryland Court of Appeals order forcing public defenders to attend thousands of bail hearings for indigent defendants held in front of district court commissioners each year, after law enforcement officials complained about the cost. The measures, introduced in the Maryland House and Senate, would amend the state's public defender statute to remove the right to counsel at the commissioner stage, before the high court's mandate takes effect next month.

At 10 a.m. on a recent weekday, roughly a half-dozen District Court commissioners were individually processing 120 arrestees at Baltimore's Central Booking and Intake Center, and making big decisions about whether to set bail or release the accused with instructions to come to court when called. They work out of tiny concrete cells in the detention center, similar to those packed with waiting prisoners. For protection, they have a window partition between them and the defendant, who is locked in during the proceeding.

The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the state must provide lawyers to indigent defendants during bail hearings, overturning a long-standing practice under which newly arrested individuals face court commissioners alone — often in private, unrecorded proceedings — to argue for freedom. "Whenever a commissioner determines to set bail, the defendant stands a good chance of losing his or her liberty, even if only for a brief time," the judges wrote. "Furthermore, the likelihood that the commissioner will give full and fair consideration to all facts relevant to the bail determination can only be enhanced by the presence of counsel.

The defining political issue of 2012 won't be the government's size. It will be who government is for. Americans have never much liked government. After all, the nation was conceived in a revolution against government. But the surge of cynicism engulfing America isn't about how big government has become. It's a growing perception that our government is no longer working for average people. It's for big business, Wall Street and the very rich. In a recent Pew Foundation poll, 77 percent of respondents said too much power is in the hands of a few rich people and corporations.

Maryland's highest court has overturned the most controversial part of the state's new ground rent law, throwing out the section that takes ownership of ground leases away from owners who fail to register them with the state. The General Assembly enacted ground rent changes in 2007 after a series of articles in The Baltimore Sun and legislative testimony that depicted people losing their homes for failing to pay a pittance in ground rent. In a 5-2 decision issued Tuesday, the Court of Appeals held that the provision that took away ground leases that were not registered violates state constitutional rights.

A family that unsuccessfully sued Baltimore police officers who arrested a 7-year-old boy for illegally riding a dirt bike in 2007 received a fair civil trial in Howard County, the state's second-highest court has ruled. The family had hoped to collect $700,000 in damages after Gerard Mungo Jr., who is now 11, was arrested. However a Howard County jury rejected the family's civil suit, even after a judge ruled that the arrest of the boy was illegal. In their appeal, the family's lawyers contended that the case should not have been moved to Howard County, because lawyers were not allowed to argue against it and because the racial makeup of the county is different from the city's . In its ruling issued Friday, the Court of Special Appeals decided that a city judge properly moved the case out of Baltimore because of the volume of publicity fueled by protesters, the news media and what judges called prejudicial comments by the city's mayor.

Maryland's highest court on Wednesday approved changes to a set of rules that require debt collectors to provide greater proof that they are entitled to sue consumers, according to a Baltimore-based legal advocacy group. The Maryland Court of Appeals agreed to revise three rules of the Maryland Rules of Procedure that will, in part, force companies that buy past-due consumer debts — and attempt to collect by suing — to present sufficient evidence to back up their claims, said Jonathan F. Harris, an attorney with the Public Justice Center.