TMLL Research Guide - Chapter 9
GHOST HUNTING: SEARCHING FOR MARYLAND LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
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The title of this article was chosen advisedly: when you are trying to find the legislative history of a particularly troublesome or cryptic Maryland statute, you soon discover the spectral mists enveloping the past of almost any law. Unhappily, there are few Maryland equivalents to the Congressional committee reports, hearings, floor debate records, and other extrinsic aids to construing federal statutes. But all is not hopeless. The checklist that follows, while not purporting to be exhaustive, catalogues many of the materials Maryland courts have consulted when they are attempting to ferret out the genesis or meaning of an ambiguous statute. Two prerequisites of research into legislative history in Maryland are first, understanding the legislative process and second, knowing where to look for the materials. For assistance on the first, you should review two invaluable guides prepared by the Department of Legislative Services. One is the Maryland Legislator's Handbook, designed for new members of the General Assembly; the other is Steps in Processing Legislation, a primer for the legislative staff. As to the second prerequisite, locating the sources, you will find that the most comprehensive collections of the legislative record and other extrinsic aids are housed in the following three repositories: Maryland Department of Legislative Reference Library Maryland State Law Library Smaller collections are found in the law libraries at the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore, the Baltimore City Bar Library, the Maryland Room at the Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Attorney General's Library in Baltimore, and the Marylandia Department at the University of Maryland's McKeldin Library in College Park. The three Annapolis libraries, plus the Enoch Pratt and McKeldin libraries, are the five major repositories for state publications. MATERIALS FROM WITHIN THE LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM a. Legislative Council of Maryland
b. Legislative Policy Committee: Reports of Committees to the General Assembly. In 1976, the Legislative Policy Committee, in conjunction with other legislative committees, took over the principal roles of the Legislative Council and its Research Division. The Policy Committee's annual reports, include findings and recommendations to the General Assembly, represent the work done between sessions by the Standing, Statutory, and Special Joint Committees since 1976. Proposed bills and joint resolutions resulting from committee study generally are included in these reports. Until 1981, each year's reports of the various Committees were printed in one volume. Since then they have been published separately, without an index. However, some individual reports are catalogued. Familiarity with the scope of each committee's work is necessary to use these sources efficiently. Studies on taxation and other fiscal matters, published as independent units since 1955, contain a wealth of information on state and local government revenue and expenditures. c. Legislative Committee Bill Files, Reports, and Hearings. Standing Committees are probably the single most powerful force in the General Assembly. A bill that is reported favorably by a Committee in both houses will usually succeed on a floor vote. Conversely, rare indeed is the bill that is resuscitated on the floor of either house after it fails in Committee. In 1975, one of the more productive sources of legislative history - the bill files of the various Standing Committees -began to be retained systematically. Previously, most files were discarded after the session. The bill files are microfilmed by the Department of Legislative Reference Library and subscribed to by the State Law Library, Marshall Law Library at the University of Maryland School of Law the University of Baltimore Law Library, the Attorney General's Library and others. Typically, bill files are retained by the Committee for one year, then turned over to Legislative Reference for filming. After filming, the original paper files are deposited with the Maryland State Archives. Most files contain some of the following materials, where applicable:
Until 1982, there were few official reports of work done during the session. In that year, however, the Department of Legislative Reference instituted a pilot project that has generated some useful documentation in the form of section-by-section bill analyses and floor reports that include background information, an explanation of legislative intent, and a summary of the contents and purpose of any amendments on legislation referred to certain Standing Committees. Three of these Committees are in the Senate, Economic and Environmental Affairs, Judicial Proceedings, and Rules, Organization, and Procedure, and two are in the House, Rules and Executive Nominations and Judiciary. Unfortunately, the Senate and House Rules Committees consider very few bills. You will find the bill analyses and floor reports in the bill files of these Committees. Transcripts of hearings on a few select bills have been prepared. Since 1992, the Department of Legislative Services Library has audio cassettes of all Senate Standing Committee hearings. Contact that library for assistance in this area. d. Audio cassettes of Floor Debate. Debate on the Floor of the Senate of Maryland. Since 1992, debates of floor sessions in the Senate of Maryland have been audio taped. The Legislative Services Library provides access to these tapes for interested researchers. e. Maryland House and Senate Journals (Provincial, 1725-1774; Senate and House of Delegates, 1777-present). As a source of legislative history, the Journals are less than a researcher might hope for. In them are recorded the first reading of all the bills (purpose clause only), the committee to which the bill was referred, subsequent amendments, the vote on amendments, and the final roll-call vote in each bill reported favorably out of committee. The rules of the Senate and House usually are printed somewhere in the Journals, and the last volume contains a subject index, along with voluminous budget-related documents in the appendices. f. Laws of Maryland. (Provincial, 1719-1776; State, 1777-present). Enactments of the General Assembly are published, generally in the order they are approved by the Governor, at the end of each legislative session. In recent years these multi-volume compilations have been indexed by subject, sponsor, bill number, and article and section affected. The texts of enacted laws in recent volumes can be of some value in determining legislative history, as they include the purpose clause, preambles, and special sections, none of which are commonly codified. Also, the printed version of the final bill allows the researcher to see at a glance the new language, deletions from prior law, and amendments to the bill during the legislative process. The session laws also contain amendments to municipal charters and to public local laws, joint resolutions, bills vetoed and the Governor's veto message, the Governor's executive orders and proclamations, certifications of results of referenda, and statements of the state's revenue and expenditures. Before being issued in bound volumes, the session laws appear in Advance Sheets. These paper bound volumes include a subject index to all bills introduced during the session, failed as well as passed. Session Reviews (since 1981) also highlight both failed and passed legislation of significance. These two sources may give your only easy access to bills that failed and sometimes illuminate legislative history of similar bills later enacted. g. Updates Updates, occasional publications of the Department of Legislative Reference, began to be issued in 1982. Each Update features analysis, surveys, and other background information on a significant topic that has been, is, or may be before the General Assembly. Legislative intent may be gleaned from the problems and solutions suggested in a particular Update. h. Legislative Report Series Another occasional publication, beginning in 1982 is the Legislative Report Series by the Research Division of the Department of Legislative Reference. These are in-depth treatments of a single topic of significant import, such as AIDS, health insurance, and criminal sentencing, containing more thorough and quantitative analysis than the Update series. Like Updates, these publications may generate future legislation or explain present law. i. Statutory Revision The Division of Statutory Revision of the Department of Legislative Services began the bulk revision of Maryland statutes in the mid 1970's. To date, twenty-four Articles have been enacted. The first publication of each new Article includes revisor's notes, which explain changes made during the revision. Each bill to enact a new recodified article is accompanied by a report to the General Assembly, which contains a more complete description of the revision than that included in the revisor's notes. Files on the articles are available in the Division offices, although at this time they are not indexed and can be cumbersome to use. The head of the Division, the Revisor of Statutes, is required by law to maintain a Style Manual for statutory law. The Division also has developed a Model Guide for Drafting Governmental Units and Licensing Provisions. The primary functions of the Model are to provide bill drafters with a uniform organizational framework and to ensure that substantively similar provisions are stated similarly. The effect of the Model is to highlight discrepancies in otherwise similar provisions. j. Miscellaneous Fiscal Papers. The Department of Legislative Services prepares various reports on state revenues and appropriations as they affect agencies and programs. Among them are the Fiscal Effects Report, published every June (since 1969); Fiscal Digests (1936 to present); and the Four-Year Fiscal Summary (1979 to present). The Department also issues Sunset Reports (1979 to present), which, among other things, discuss the origins and purposes of state agencies, boards, and commissions. a. Governor's Messages and Vetoes The Governor's messages often provide insight into the administration's proposed legislation. The traditional State-of-the-State message of the Governor appears in the House and Senate Journals. The Governor's budget message usually is submitted as a separate publication with the annual state budget books. All executive orders and proclamations are reprinted and indexed in the Journal volumes and session laws and some also appear in the Annotated Code of Maryland, the Maryland Register, and COMAR. Published addresses and papers of each Governor, transcripts of press conferences (1977-present), and press releases also may contain useful information about executive programs. Executive veto messages generally appear in the Maryland House and Senate Journals (usually at the beginning of the session) and the Laws of Maryland. b. Legislative and Executive Task Forces and Study Commissions. Many statutes are the culmination of studies by bodies charged by the Governor, and/or the General Assembly with finding legislative solutions to social or economic problems. The list of each session's approved joint resolutions requesting such studies appears in a volume of the Laws of Maryland. Each study group's papers, which usually include minutes, transcripts of public hearings, and interim and final reports, can be an excellent source of legislative history. The State Law Library currently has in excess of 800 such reports issued over the past 150 years. A checklist of these reports is available for sale at the State Law Library. Maryland Study Commission and Task Force Reports Some of the reports of earlier commissions established by joint resolutions appear in the House and Senate Journals, Maryland Public Documents, and Maryland House and Senate Documents (see c. below). For reports never distributed or not kept by the major law libraries, the best source is the Executive Files maintained at the Maryland State Archives. c. Annual Reports and Papers of Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches The files, annual reports, and research studies done by executive branch agencies, the courts, and the General Assembly may yield pertinent materials. Early annual reports are published in Maryland Public Documents (1829-1854) and Maryland House and Senate Documents (1856-1920). In addition to annual reports from various state agencies and institutions, these volumes include reports of select and standing legislative committees, executive messages, and contested election cases. The State Law Library has compiled an extensive index to these historically significant series. For recent reports and studies consult one of the state repository libraries. A subject index to the Governor's Executive Files from 1957 has been made. However, the state restricts use of Executive Files of a Governor whose administration ended fewer than 30 years ago. The State Archives should be consulted about the availability of these files. d. Maryland Attorney General's Opinions and Files. Because the Office of the Attorney General is Counsel to the General Assembly, members and committees of the Legislature and task forces often seek the advice of that office on the constitutionality or construction of bills and statutes. Advice may be rendered in formal opinions, written advice of counsel, or informal oral communications. The Attorney General's Office of Counsel to the General Assembly is also responsible for reviewing all enacted legislation for constitutionality and preparing bill-review letters to the Governor prior to approval or veto of the bills. In addition to the Reports and Official Opinions of the Attorney General (from 1916) and Unpublished Opinions (from 1973), you should consult bill-review letters, copies of which are usually in the Committee Bill files or may be requested from the Office of Counsel to the General Assembly, and "legislative letters" (from 1972) in the Office of Counsel to the General Assembly. e. Maryland Court of Appeals and Court of Special Appeals Briefs and Record Extracts. Prior appeals involving statutory construction may have generated source materials on related questions. Shepardizing the relevant statute may help you uncover such materials in briefs and record extracts submitted to the courts, as well as in the reported cases. f. Superseded Editions of the Annotated Code of Maryland. A complete set of the superseded volumes of the Annotated Code can be of immeasurable help in tracing the history of a statute from its original form through subsequent amendments. Most major law libraries retain all superseded volumes of the Code. Unfortunately, the editors and publishers of the current recodified Code have abandoned the practice of listing the dates and chapter numbers of all amendments to a statute previously found at the end of each section of the 1957 edition of the Code, thereby complicating the search. g. Miscellaneous Sources.
HISTORY OF STATE CONSTITUTIONS AND CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS Maryland has adopted four constitutions: in 1776, 1851, 1864, and 1867. The 1867 Constitution, still in force, has been amended more than 150 times. The primary sources of state constitutional history are the convention proceedings and debates. Noteworthy secondary sources include A. Niles, Maryland Constitutional Law (1915); J. Harry, The Maryland Constitution of 1851 (1902); H. Walker Lewis, The Maryland Constitution-1776 (1976); and W. Myers, The Constitution of 1864 (1901). A year after Maryland's last Constitutional Convention in 1967, a revised Constitution was submitted to the people. Although it failed, many of its reform proposals have since been adopted. As a result, the voluminous output of the Convention is now fertile ground for researching the history of enactments of subsequent laws and constitutional amendments. See, e.g., Constitutional Revision Study Documents of the Constitutional Convention of Maryland (1968). While most major law libraries have a substantial portion of the proceedings and reports of the four conventions, the only comprehensive collections are in the Maryland State Archives and the State Law Library. For email questions contact mdlaw.library@courts.state.md.us Address: Maryland State Law Library Internet: http://www.lawlib.state.md.us
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