More News

During Colonial days, it was called the Committee on Aggrievances, an apt name considering the accusations and controversies that swirl around Maryland's House Judiciary Committee 318 years later.

Judiciary is, by far, the most conservative committee in the General Assembly. That's been the case for as long as anyone can remember. Indeed, many refer to it as the "killer committee" because so many bills assigned to Judiciary never survive.

Over the years, its chairmen have tended to be tough-as-nails lawyers who won't tamper with criminal or civil statutes unless absolutely necessary.

A colorful cast of characters has presided over this committee in the last 60 years — the outspoken Eastern Shoreman, Lloyd "Hot Dog" Simpkins; the physically imposing Thomas Hunter Lowe, who possessed a fearsome temper and an equally fearsome sense of mischief, and the gruff, authoritarian Joe Owens of Montgomery County, known to many simply as "the Colonel."

Since 1993, the committee has been controlled by a grumpy, publicity-shy defense attorney from Suitland, Joe Vallario.

Decade after decade, Judiciary Committee members passed along a tradition of relentless questioning. The panel is laden with trial lawyers. Their style is aggressive and lacking in compassion — the sort of tough courtroom interrogation reserved for hostile witnesses.

It's like oral arguments before the Supreme Court: speakers from both sides get skewered by right-wing ideologues Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito as well as by left-wingers Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor.

Judiciary Committee hearings, though, offer another spectacle: a blurring of political ideologies. Conservative panel members wind up defending the civil liberties of the accused and committee liberals vociferously attack bills that make sweeping changes in courtroom rules. Party labels temporarily are forgotten.

Half the panel members are lawyers and the rest may as well be. They are on the hot seat every day with hearings on sensitive issues: gun laws, death penalty, protective orders, same-sex marriages and strategies to deal with gang violence and sexual predators.

Vallario is popular with members because he gives them free rein to grill witnesses and later to engage in exhaustive discussions on the bills.

But the chairman is decidedly unpopular with groups that regularly testify before the committee. He lets delegates badger and bully witnesses. Even crime victims sometimes receive hostile receptions.

So far this session, the legislature's Women's Caucus has complained to House Speaker Mike Busch about the Judiciary Committee's unwelcoming atmosphere. Baltimore's police chief has spoken about the unsympathetic, dismissive reception he received. Baltimore's state's attorney often has voiced her displeasure with the insulting tone of committee questions.

Recently, Busch had a chat with Vallario. Since then, the chairman and his Judiciary colleagues have dialed down their aggressiveness and started taking "nice" pills.

But most lawyers on the committee see themselves as defending the best of American jurisprudence, which first found its voice back in Colonial days.

Their legal training drummed into their heads the importance of preserving the rights of the accused. They distrust reform bills that might weaken historic individual liberties.

Thus it should come as no surprise that proposals calling for sweeping changes in the law receive a cool reception.

The Maryland Senate has an equivalent panel, the Judicial Proceedings Committee. It can be hard on proposed legal reforms, too. Senate President Mike Miller, a former Judicial Proceedings chairman, makes sure conservatives hold a slight edge on the committee. He quietly exerts influence to ensure that sweeping or controversial legal measures don't reach the Senate floor.

Since 2003, Montgomery County's Brian Frosh has chaired Judicial Proceedings. The liberal Frosh is far more considerate of witnesses than his conservative predecessor, the brusque, heavy-handed Walter Baker, who ran Judicial Proceedings for 16 years.

The Senate also has a long tradition of being a more genteel and mannerly chamber than the larger, more rambunctious House of Delegates.

Yet even Frosh is reluctant to rush through reform measures without first considering the long-term ramifications. He is uneasy about how changes will play out in an actual court of law.

In this legislative session, he has slowed to a crawl the governor's package of sex-offender bills, not because he disagrees with the objectives but because he wants to eliminate the possibility of unintended negative consequences.

Frosh also isn't like the dictatorial Baker, who would toss bills he opposed in a desk drawer for the duration of the General Assembly session. There's an attempt in Frosh's committee to politely hear all sides out and then vote on the bills.

Vallario, on the other hand, has been known to postpone committee votes on distasteful bills until it is too late to win passage during the 90-day session. He's got a lot in common with Owens, who drew scathing criticism from women's groups, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and gay rights activists for his staunchly conservative attitude and determination to block reforms in his committee.

He and Owens seem to share a belief that society should not be micro-managed through mountains of legislation. As Owens once told an interviewer, "I had a problem with too much government and too many laws."

In the fall, Vallario faces a tough primary, though he has a substantial edge in campaign funds. If he survives, Busch must decide if it's time for a new Judiciary Committee chairman.

Yet every legislative chamber needs an individual willing to take the heat for blocking or heavily amending well-intended bills that might not be good for Maryland in the long run.

In that respect, Vallario would be difficult to replace. But unless the chairman agrees to improve his panel's longstanding case of bad manners, it's difficult to see how he can last another term as leader of the Judiciary Committee.

Barry Rascovar is a State House columnist and a communications consultant. He can be reached at brascovar@hotmail.com.