Change is in the offing for U.S. drug policy. More than a dozen states, including Maryland, have adopted medical marijuana laws. Attorney General Eric Holder, a decisive member of a sometimes indecisive administration, stated that federal laws against marijuana possession would not be enforced against persons immune under such state laws. Various jurisdictions in California […]
This indignant screed is prepared in support of a proposal circulated by Professors Paul Carrington and Roger Cramton and endorsed by several dozen judges, academic lawyers and practitioners. The proposal would somewhat enlarge the Supreme Court’s docket and transfer control of most of it to a certiorari division of the Supreme Court consisting of five […]
The recent Senate hearing on the Obama administration’s ‘czars’ deserves more attention than the facetious comments of Dana Milbank. We see now the latest instance of a bi-partisan and recurrent problem, last seriously discussed at the time of Watergate. At that time the constitutional scholar Alexander Bickel observed “In opposing cant of ‘not men, but […]
What can be said of the Obama administration? This is not Roosevelt’s 100 days: it has left no permanent impression on the American economy or government. This is no reform administration, though it follows 16 years of inadequate presidential leadership. When it is considered that the Defense, State, Treasury and Justice Departments are all led […]
Let’s hear from the state’s attorney candidates on peremptory challenges, drug offenses In a little more than two weeks, Baltimore City voters will participate in a seriously contested election for state’s attorney. There are various suggestions for rendering the criminal justice system more efficient. “Smoking out” the candidates would be useful to city voters next […]
Your editorial of August 5 on the Massinga foster care decision fails to make clear the reasons why Attorney General Douglas Gansler and Judge J. Frederick Motz properly felt that a further hearing was required (“A breach of trust,” Aug. 6). The recent decision of the Supreme Court disrupts cozy arrangements between advocacy groups and […]
Few states can have used the benefits accruing to them in the Obama administration’s stimulus bill as irresponsibly as Maryland. We may pass in review the bill’s effect on Maryland public policy: Pension and Retirement Systems The Calvert Institute and the Maryland Public Policy Foundation recently published a study of Maryland’s public pension and retiree […]
baltimoresun.com Not just for mother-in-law Accessory apartments benefit society and the economy, and it’s time for tax credits to promote them By Patrick H. Hare and George W. Liebmann January 29, 2009 Twenty years ago, we separately produced publications urging that governments should provide incentives for the creation of accessory apartments (sometimes called “mother-in-law apartments”) […]
SUMMARY Maryland’s state and local pension and retirement benefits plans are in for some hard times ahead. Facing budget shortfalls, governments are underfunding their retirement plans, while at the same time expanding the benefit promises to public employees. This unsustainable financing places both taxpayers and public employees at risk. Today, the Maryland State Retirement and […]
The recent, ringing defeat of a referendum on school vouchers in Utah – generally thought of as America’s most conservative state – should be a wake-up call to critics of our public school system. The proposal failed for several reasons apart from the might of the teachers unions. Chief among these is that it was […]