Lee Casey and David Rivkin, in the latest of their many apologias for the Bush administration, again urge the theory of the unitary executive (Times, May 29). In this scheme of things, the Presidency is an elective dictatorship, and subordinate officers like U.S. Attorneys, once the formality of Senate confirmation is over, are removable for […]
The Calvert Institute announces publication of The Trimmer’s Almanac: Ten Years of the Calvert Institute, 1996-2006, available for $30 including postage (five or more copies, $15 each including postage). The Table of Contents of this handsomely bound 660 page volume appears below: Table of Contents Table of Contents i Preface v I. Criminal Justice Charles […]
The news that the Bush administration has replaced seven U.S. attorneys, none charged with or guilty of wrongdoing, with people fairly describable as Washington apparatchiks should give pause to all those concerned with America’s working Constitution. This was made possible by a provision of the Patriot Act allowing the president to make interim appointments of […]
WASHINGTON – The recent election has seen states adopt constitutional amendments reversing the recent Kelo decision allowing New London, Conn., to condemn private homes for purposes of development. That decision was applauded by city officials, and was decried by many conservatives, including some seeking to ban all redistributive government activity. A dialogue of the deaf, […]
BALTIMORE – Voters must ask the two main candidates for governor these three questions about schools before they vote for either one: Do you favor: Opening up teaching to people not trained in education schools? Pay structures resembling private labor markets, where schools compete? Building-level management of schools? Why are these reforms needed? Schools are […]
In March 2006, The Institute published a study, The Baltimore City Retirement Systems: Heading for Trouble, available online here. That study pointed out that the Employees’ Retirement System of Baltimore City had consistently produced investment results below its benchmark yields based on comparisons with market indices. The shortfalls were as follows: 2004-05.7% 2003-041.0% 2002-03.81% In […]
The Candidates and Education The Sun and other publications have compared the views of Governor Ehrlich and Mayor O’Malley on education issues, but the comparisons for the most part miss the point. Fundamentally, there are three questions to be asked politicians about school improvement: Do you favor opening up teaching and administration to persons not […]
A Short Attention Span Ten years ago, a City Council Committee, under a Chairman who shall go nameless (his name starts with “O’” and is neither German nor Ukrainian), took a look at the Baltimore City criminal justice system. Its central focus was Baltimore’s notorious Central Booking Facility, a state-financed facility whose operation has important […]
King Saud of Baltimore Many have commented on Mayor O’Malley’s ambitions, but hitherto these have been thought to center on Washington, not Riyadh. It now is apparent, however, that the Mayor relishes his role as a minor-league energy czar, the commander-in-chief of an almost unique chain of a dozen municipal filling stations. A word of […]
PDF BALTIMORE – The recent opinion by an especially distinguished panel of the Court of Special Appeals in Clark v. O’Malley allowing a fired police commissioner’s suit to go forward should have come as a surprise to nobody. An 1860 statute dictating that the police commissioner of Baltimore City can be discharged only for just […]