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Maryland Constitution
The current Constitution of the State of Maryland, which was ratified by the people of the state on September 18, 1867, forms the basic law for the U.S. state of Maryland. It replaced the short-lived Maryland Constitution of 1864 and is the fourth constitution under which the state has been governed. It was last amended in 2024. At approximately 47,000 words (including annotations), the Maryland Constitution is much longer than the average length of a state constitution in the United States, which is about 26,000 words (the United States Constitution is about 8,700 words long). Background, drafting, and ratification Maryland had constitutional conventions in 1776 and 1850–51. The state's 1864 constitution was written in a convention during the Civil War, while the Unionists temporarily controlled Maryland. Approved by a bare majority (50.31%) of the state's eligible voters, including Maryland men who were serving in the Union army outside the state, it temporarily disfranchis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Seal Of Maryland Reverse
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" * Artel Great (born 1981), American actor * Great Osobor (born 2002), Spanish-born British basketball player Other uses * ''Great'' (1975 film), a British animated short about Isambard Kingdom Brunel * ''Great'' (2013 film), a German short film * Great (supermarket), a supermarket in Hong Kong * GReAT, Graph Rewriting and Transformation, a Model Transformation Language * Gang Resistance Education and Training Gang Resistance Education And Training, abbreviated G.R.E.A.T., provides a school-based, police officer-instructed program in America that includes classroom instruction and a variety of learning activities. The program was originally adminis ..., or GREAT, a school-based and police officer-instructed program * Global Research and Analysis Te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ex Post Facto Law
An ''ex post facto'' law is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences or status of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may criminalize actions that were legal when committed; it may aggravate a crime by bringing it into a more severe category than it was in when it was committed; it may change the punishment prescribed for a crime, as by adding new penalties or extending sentences; it may extend the statute of limitations; or it may alter the rules of evidence in order to make conviction for a crime likelier than it would have been when the deed was committed. Conversely, a form of ''ex post facto law'' called an amnesty law may decriminalize certain acts. Alternatively, rather than redefining the relevant acts as non-criminal, it may simply prohibit prosecution; or it may enact that there is to be no punishment, but leave the underlying conviction technically unaltered. A pardon has a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constitutional Amendment
A constitutional amendment (or constitutional alteration) is a modification of the constitution of a polity, organization or other type of entity. Amendments are often interwoven into the relevant sections of an existing constitution, directly altering the text. Conversely, they can be appended to the constitution as supplemental additions ( codicils), thus changing the frame of government without altering the existing text of the document. Most constitutions require that amendments cannot be enacted unless they have passed a special procedure that is more stringent than that required of ordinary legislation. Examples of such special procedures include supermajorities in the legislature, or direct approval by the electorate in a referendum, or even a combination of two or more different special procedures. A referendum to amend the constitution may also be triggered in some jurisdictions by popular initiative. Australia and Ireland provide examples of constitutions requiring t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impeachment In Maryland
In the American state of Maryland, the practice of impeachment has existed since its colonial era as the Province of Maryland and has been legally permitted during Maryland's statehood. Impeachment allows a legislative body to remove an official from office after a trial. Colonial-era impeachments John Morecroft (member of the Assembly of Free Marylanders and judicial officer) in 1669 In 1699, John Morecroft, a member of the Assembly of Free Marylanders (Maryland's lower house) and St. Mary's Parish judicial officeholder, was impeached by the assembly. Hoffer's impeachment was initiated by a petition brought by influential trader Robert Morris. Petition was a method of impeachment carried over from English impeachment. This means was used by Morris because Morris was not a member of the assembly himself. This petition came after Morecroft had sued Morris in provincial court for libel. The articles of impeachment brought against Morecroft accused Morecroft of having: # B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Separation Of Powers
The separation of powers principle functionally differentiates several types of state (polity), state power (usually Legislature#Legislation, law-making, adjudication, and Executive (government)#Function, execution) and requires these operations of government to be conceptually and institutionally distinguishable and articulated, thereby maintaining the integrity of each. To put this model into practice, government is divided into structurally independent branches to perform various functions (most often a legislature, a judiciary and an administration, sometimes known as the ). When each function is allocated strictly to one branch, a government is described as having a high degree of separation; whereas, when one person or branch plays a significant part in the exercise of more than one function, this represents a fusion of powers. History Antiquity Polybius (''Histories'', Book 6, 11–13) described the Roman Republic as a mixed government ruled by the Roman Senate, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fourteenth Amendment To The United States Constitution
The Fourteenth Amendment (Amendment XIV) to the United States Constitution was adopted on July 9, 1868, as one of the Reconstruction Amendments. Considered one of the most consequential amendments, it addresses Citizenship of the United States, citizenship rights and equal protection under the law at all levels of government. The Fourteenth Amendment was a response to issues affecting Freedman#United States, freed slaves following the American Civil War, and its passage was bitterly contested. States of the defeated Confederate States of America, Confederacy were required to ratify it to regain representation in United States Congress, Congress. The amendment, particularly its first section, is one of the most litigated parts of the Constitution, forming the basis for landmark Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court decisions, such as ''Brown v. Board of Education'' (1954; prohibiting Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation in State school#United St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Amendment To The United States Constitution
The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents Federal government of the United States, Congress from making laws respecting an Establishment Clause, establishment of religion; prohibiting the Free Exercise Clause, free exercise of religion; or abridging the Freedom of speech in the United States, freedom of speech, the Freedom of the press in the United States, freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, or the Right to petition in the United States, right to petition the government for redress of grievances. It was adopted on December 15, 1791, as one of the ten amendments that constitute the United States Bill of Rights, Bill of Rights. In the original draft of the Bill of Rights, what is now the First Amendment occupied third place. The first two articles were not ratified by the states, so the article on disestablishment and free speech ended up being first. The Bill of Rights was proposed to assuage Anti-Federalism, Anti-Federalist oppo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Amendment To The United States Constitution
The Second Amendment (Amendment II) to the United States Constitution protects the Right to keep and bear arms in the United States, right to keep and bear arms. It was ratified on December 15, 1791, along with nine other articles of the United States Bill of Rights. In ''District of Columbia v. Heller'' (2008), the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court affirmed that the right belongs to individuals, for self-defense in the home, while also including, as ''Dictum, dicta'', that the right is not unlimited and does not preclude the existence of certain long-standing prohibitions such as those forbidding "the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill" or restrictions on "the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons". In ''McDonald v. City of Chicago'' (2010) the Supreme Court ruled that State governments of the United States, state and Local government in the United States, local governments are Incorporation of the Bill of Rights, limited to the same ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Right To Arms
The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as hunting and sporting activities. Countries that guarantee a right to keep and bear arms include Albania, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, the Philippines, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United States and Yemen. Background The English Bill of Rights 1689, passed in the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution which overthrew the Catholic King James II, allows Protestant citizens of England and Wales to "have Arms for their Defence suitable to their Conditions and as allowed by Law." This restricted the ability of the English Crown to have a standing army or to interfere with Protestants' right to bear arms "when Papists were both Armed and Imployed contrary to Law" and established that Parliament, not the Crown, could regulate the right to bea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Militia
A militia ( ) is a military or paramilitary force that comprises civilian members, as opposed to a professional standing army of regular, full-time military personnel. Militias may be raised in times of need to support regular troops or serve as a pool of available manpower for regular forces to draw from. When acting independently, militias are generally unable to hold ground against regular forces. Militias commonly support regular troops by skirmishing, holding fortifications, or conducting irregular warfare, instead of undertaking offensive campaigns by themselves. However, militias may also engage in defense activities to protect a community, its territory, property, and laws. For example, naval militias may comprise fishermen and other civilians which are organized and sanctioned by a state to enforce its maritime boundaries. Beginning in the late 20th century, some militias (in particular officially recognized and sanctioned militias of a government) act as profe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Supreme Court Of Maryland
The Supreme Court of Maryland (previously the Maryland Court of Appeals) is the highest court of the U.S. state of Maryland. The court, which is composed of one chief justice and six associate justices, meets in the Robert C. Murphy Courts of Appeal Building in the state capital, Annapolis. The term of the Court begins the second Monday of September. The Court is unique among American courts in that the justices wear red robes. History As the highest tribunal in Maryland, the Court of Appeals was created by Article 56 of the Maryland Constitution of 1776. The Court was to be "composed of persons of integrity and sound judgment in the law, whose judgment shall be final and conclusive in all cases of appeal, from the general court, court of chancery, and court of admiralty". With counsel, advice and consent, the Governor appointed all of the judges. Five judges were commissioned in 1778, but that number was reduced to three in 1801. The Court was restructured in 1806 by dividing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
