The Special Laws Prohibition, Maryland's Charter Counties, and the "Avoidance of Unthinkable Outcomes"

83 Maryland. Law Review Online 28

37 Pages Posted: 1 Dec 2023

Date Written: November 20, 2023

Abstract

Recently, Maryland appellate courts have suggested that county councils in Maryland’s charter home rule counties are prohibited from adopting laws that violate the State constitutional prohibition on special laws. Although none of the traditional techniques of constitutional interpretation require that this should be the case, this article suggests that courts can and should reach this result through a doctrine that I will call the “avoidance of unthinkable outcomes,” an interpretive technique derived from the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bolling v. Sharpe and the Supreme Court of Maryland’s decision in Attorney General v. Waldron. The article concludes with my view that constitutional interpretation requires an interpreter to use all available interpretive techniques, constrained by professional norms, to come to the best possible constitutional interpretation.

Keywords: state constitution, special laws, charter counties, maryland constitution

Suggested Citation

Friedman, Dan, The Special Laws Prohibition, Maryland's Charter Counties, and the "Avoidance of Unthinkable Outcomes" (November 20, 2023). 83 Maryland. Law Review Online 28, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4640180

Dan Friedman (Contact Author)

Appellate Court of Maryland

361 Rowe Boulevard
Annapolis, MD Maryland 21204
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
23
Abstract Views
193
PlumX Metrics