Page 2 - Erickan King News Today

Early last week Ivan Bates was sworn in as the new state’s attorney in Baltimore City. His first announced change to the office once headed by Marilyn Mosby was to do away with his predecessor’s policy of not prosecuting low-level criminal offenses, such as marijuana possession and prostitution. Bates has made clear that prosecuting these ...

On Jan. 6, 2023, the Supreme Court of Maryland unanimously referred a proposed rule on the distribution and broadcast of official criminal trial audio recordings back to the Maryland Judiciary Rules Committee for further consideration. We applaud that decision, which reflected the recommendation of the committee chair, Alan Wilner, and we urge the news media ...

On Dec. 14, 2022, the names of Maryland’s appellate courts changed pursuant to a constitutional amendment approved by Maryland’s voters in the 2022 General Election. However, one vestige of the past that should be changed remains with respect to Maryland’s appellate courts — the citation of unreported opinions. Maryland Rule 1-104 prohibits the citation of ...

The Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller considered the Second Amendment to be an offshoot of Anglo-American common law. And as such, Heller made clear that the government had the authority to regulate weapons; the right to keep and bear arms was subject to what it referred to as longstanding prohibitions, holding, “like ...

We’d like to put our faith in a government that is doing what’s best for us, or in our best interest; public administrators — politicians — are ethically bound to protect the public interest. We like to think that our elected representatives serve the people and not themselves, that they bring morality to our government. ...

Maryland House Bill 934, phasing out the sale and use of gas-powered leaf blowers in Maryland, was pulled by its sponsors in the last legislative session. There was opposition to the bill from neighborhood associations and trade associations, who agreed to meet with the bill’s sponsors over the summer to talk about a rebate program ...

It’s coming. Beginning next fall, every student entering Maryland law schools is likely to take a Next Generation Bar Examination following graduation. In fact, there are some students already in law school whose future licensure may be determined by their performance on the NextGen exam. Deans and faculty at both law schools have already begun ...

Recently, the Association for the Public Defender of Maryland, the Maryland State Bar Association, and the Maryland Office of the Public Defender gathered to celebrate the MOPD’s first 50 years. The Daily Record Editorial Board joins in this important acknowledgement of the critical role the MOPD plays in an equitable justice system, and congratulates Natasha ...

On Oct. 25, 2022, a Russian court rejected Brittney Griner’s appeal for an unwarranted 9½ year sentence after she pled guilty to attempting to enter Russia while possessing vape cartridges containing approximately 0.7 grams of cannabis oil. The sentence handed down is not only excessive, but also, according to her attorneys “contradicts the existing court ...

Nearly four years ago, this board took the position that a proposed bill to allow Baltimore City “to establish open primary elections or ‘ranked choice’ voting for primary and general elections” was a poor idea. We still believe that open primaries in local elections are a bad idea, but we have reconsidered our position on ...