Judiciary

Newt Gingrich, the self-proclaimed "smartest guy in the room," may have outsmarted himself in his latest assault on the American judiciary, just as his newly acquired front-running status for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination is shining a brighter spotlight than ever on him. The former House speaker's call for the removal of federal judges he considers too far out of the public mainstream, even to the point of forcibly hauling them before Congress...

On Thursday, April 18, lawyers and judges from Maryland's courts will share their expertise and personal experiences to help area students learn about law and society. Students attending the Civics and Law Academy will meet face-to-face with judges and other legal professionals to discuss a variety of topics, including juvenile rights, criminal law, free speech and the law in the technology age. The April 18 session will be held at North Harford High School in Pylesville, and will include more than 100 students from North Harford, Joppatowne, Bel Air, Edgewood, Aberdeen, Fallston and Havre de Grace high schools.

Silver Spring. -- It is time -- indeed it is well past time -- for the Democrats to stop being such wimps about allowing this country's judiciary to enter a dark age.The conservatives have handed them a tool with which the Democrats can assert their power as the dominant party in the Senate. That tool is the conservatives' ostensible commitment to ''strict construction'' of the Constitution.Where in the Constitution does it say that the judiciary is to be the creature of the Executive, made in his image?

The John R. Hargrove Sr. building of Baltimore's district court closed shortly after 9 a.m. Tuesday because of a nearby water main break that left the facility without water. It's unclear when the building,  on the 700 block of E. Patapsco Ave.,  will reopen and resume hearing cases. Bail reviews were transferred to the Borgerding district court location at 5800 Wabash Ave, and other cases were postponed, said judiciary spokeswoman Terri Bolling. The water main break occurred on the 3600 block of Brooklyn Ave., Bolling said.

Newt Gingrich, the self-proclaimed "smartest guy in the room," may have outsmarted himself in his latest assault on the American judiciary, just as his front-running status for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination is shining a brighter spotlight than ever on him. The former House speaker's call for the removal of federal judges he considers too far out of the public mainstream, even to the point of forcibly hauling them before Congress to...

WASHINGTON -- Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, in his year-end report on the judiciary, faulted Congress yesterday for turning local offenses into federal crimes, a trend that he said has overburdened the U.S. courts.Last year, the number of new crime cases in the federal judiciary rose by 15 percent, he said, the largest increase in nearly three decades. The rise was propelled mostly by drug and immigration cases, he added.Whether controlled by Democrats or Republicans, Congress has regularly created new federal crimes over the past two decades.

WASHINGTON -- A year after the killings of the husband and mother of a Chicago federal judge and a shooting rampage in an Atlanta courthouse that left three people dead, the safety of judges and court employees remains a serious concern for the judiciary. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said last week that three-quarters of the more than 2,000 federal judges had sought government-paid home security systems. The Judicial Conference of the United States, which sets policy for the federal courts, met last week for the first time under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and approved security measures.

Court employees across the state hand-wrote warrant, bail and case data all day yesterday - an unwelcome blast from the past thanks to damaged Verizon cables in Annapolis that shut down the Maryland judiciary's computer system. The cables affecting the court system were to be repaired yesterday evening, but cables providing phone service to about 6,300 businesses and homes in Annapolis and Parole might not be repaired until this weekend, a Verizon spokeswoman said. Affected businesses and offices along Jennifer Road included the county jail and the county school system.

CREDIT BALTIMORE City Circuit Judge John Carroll Byrnes vTC with recognizing the importance of public confidence in the judicial system. Faced with a tough decision -- the sentencing of Stephen Pagotto, a Baltimore City police officer convicted of involuntary manslaughter during a traffic stop -- he knew his ruling would be controversial. So he has gone to great lengths -- including two appearances on radio talk shows -- to explain why he ordered a three-year prison term.That is unconventional behavior for a judge and, in the opinion of many court watchers, it is also risky business.

WASHINGTON - Top Senate Democrats and Republicans told President Bush yesterday that he should consider tapping someone outside the judiciary to fill Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's seat on the Supreme Court, suggesting a U.S. senator or other nominee outside the "judicial monastery" could bring much-needed perspective to the court. In a breakfast meeting at the White House with Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., four Senate leaders said they thoroughly discussed the idea of looking beyond the courts for a nominee.

The federal government is considering closing dozens of rural court sites across the country, including one that serves Maryland's Eastern Shore — a move that would force people to drive up to 110 miles to the nearest courthouse to have their cases heard. "It would be a grave inconvenience to litigants to have them come to a federal court in either Baltimore or Greenbelt. It makes no sense," said Deborah K. Chasanow, chief judge of Maryland's U.S. District Courts. The potential closures, 60 of them spread throughout 29 states, are being considered as a cost-cutting measure within the federal judiciary.

The independent Judicial Compensation Commission recently reported its findings to the Maryland General Assembly - presented to the Senate and House of Delegates in the form of joint resolutions - regarding judge's salaries Our state's judges have not received a raise since 2006, and our Circuit Court Judges' pay, when ranked among that of their national peers and adjusted for cost of living, pathetically ranks 43rd in the nation. Just as we take understandable pride in the first-in-the-nation ranking of our state's educational system, we should be suitably embarrassed by that of our judicial compensation - embarrassed not simply by the aforementioned statistic itself, but also by what it says about our state's under-appreciation of what our judges do on a daily basis.  In order to attract new, qualified candidates to the bench, and to retain the judges currently serving, competitive judicial compensation is necessary and appropriate.

The independent Judicial Compensation Commission recently reported its findings to the Maryland General Assembly, which presented them to the Senate and House of Delegates in the form of Joint Resolutions. Our state's judges have not received a raise since 2006, and our Circuit Court judges' pay, when ranked alongside that of their national peers and adjusted for the cost of living, ranks a pathetic 43rd in the nation. Just as we take understandable pride in the first-in-the-nation ranking of our state's educational system, we should be suitably embarrassed by the poor ranking of our judicial compensation - embarrassed not simply by the aforementioned statistic itself, but also by what it says about our state's under-appreciation of what our judges do on a daily basis.

Newt Gingrich, the self-proclaimed "smartest guy in the room," may have outsmarted himself in his latest assault on the American judiciary, just as his newly acquired front-running status for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination is shining a brighter spotlight than ever on him. The former House speaker's call for the removal of federal judges he considers too far out of the public mainstream, even to the point of forcibly hauling them before Congress...

Newt Gingrich, the self-proclaimed "smartest guy in the room," may have outsmarted himself in his latest assault on the American judiciary, just as his front-running status for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination is shining a brighter spotlight than ever on him. The former House speaker's call for the removal of federal judges he considers too far out of the public mainstream, even to the point of forcibly hauling them before Congress to...

In his Dec. 17 article, "Parking agents are no-shows," Peter Hermann informs his readers about a day in Baltimore City District Court, at the Patapsco Avenue location, when 75 parking tickets were dismissed because the parking agents did not appear in court. The mandate of the District Court of Maryland, a part of the Maryland Judiciary, is to adjudicate disputes, in a process providing equal and exact justice for all of the litigants; it does not and should not favor one litigant over another, even when one of them is a government entity.

COURTS ENSHRINE unchanging legal principles, but systems of justice must also be resilient. Changing times bring new challenges. Good systems of justice -- those that serve citizens well -- know when to adapt.Maryland's courts are facing daunting challenges, ranging from dramatic increases in caseloads to outdated and inadequate facilities. The Commission on the Future of Maryland's Courts has looked at a wide range of issues and made recommendations on problems big and small. Some will be politically tough -- like reorganizing the circuit court system.

When House Republicans tried last week to block federal courts from hearing challenges to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin didn't sugarcoat the latest effort to limit the judiciary: We do this, the Missouri Republican said, "because we don't trust them." In the simmering feud between Congress and the courts, such "jurisdiction stripping" measures have emerged as a weapon of choice for Republicans. For the most part, the proposals - including the move to allow only state courts to hear Pledge of Allegiance challenges - stand little chance of becoming law, legal scholars and analysts say. But they lay bare ugly tensions between the legislative and judicial branches and could prove to be a potent issue in this year's midterm elections.

Lost in the gathering debate over President Barack Obama's next Supreme Court pick, a profound shift in the federal judiciary is taking place below the high court. Working methodically, and drawing sporadic fire from left and right, Obama is gradually reshaping the U.S. courts. Already, he's tipped the balance of two appellate circuits to Democratic-appointed majorities, with a third about to flip. He also is choosing a larger proportion of women and minorities for lifetime federal judgeships than other presidents.

Women lawmakers angrily protested Thursday to House Speaker Michael E. Busch about the way a committee that handles sensitive crime legislation treats those who come to Annapolis to testify. In particular, the head of the women's caucus said, Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph F. Vallario Jr.'s "tyrannical leadership" has become intolerable. "He sets the tone for the committee," said Del. Sue Kullen, a Calvert County Democrat and president of the Women Legislators of Maryland, which includes the General Assembly's 58 female lawmakers.