In miniature, December 22

• Every move you make, they’ll be watching you: Montgomery County considers first-in-nation program to use road cameras to catch drivers using their cell phones [Rebecca Tan, Washington Post]
• And whether relatedly or not: why is Montgomery County’s violent crime rate twice as high as that in neighboring Fairfax County, Va.? [Kevin Lewis, WJLA]
• Baltimore Mayor Bernard Young gives a boost to white-van trafficking panic. Bonus: body parts harvesting rumors! [Vanessa Herring, WBAL; Donie O’Sullivan, CNN; Lenore Skenazy (“Being freaked out by a van is like being freaked out by a pigeon.”); mentioned on Yuripzy Morgan’s WBAL show]
• In Rouse’s vision of Columbia, schools and housing patterns would work together to promote socioeconomic integration. But Howard County school boards and land use officials went their own way [Len Lazarick, Maryland Reporter]
• Toward greater transparency in police misconduct and discipline [Glynis Kazanjian, Maryland Matters]
• Frederick County Charter Review Commission update: I supported and argued for Councilmember Steve McKay’s well-thought-out proposal to give voters a bigger say in filling vacancies in elected office, a responsibility currently held mostly by party central committees. [Steve Bohnel, Frederick News-Post; earlier]

In miniature, November 17

• State of Maryland is appealing, to Fourth Circuit, federal judge’s ruling that its law regulating political advertising on social media is unconstitutionally broad [Denise Lavoie, AP/WHSV] As I wrote at the time, “Social media trickery is bad. Chipping away at First Amendment liberties to stop it is worse.”
• Some overdue national attention for the role of Maryland’s “red flag” gun law in the shooting death of Gary Willis at the hands of Anne Arundel police [Jacob Sullum, earlier]
• This, from Baltimore musician Jonathan Jensen, had me laughing [Classic FM]
• Maryland’s Brian Frosh was a key player in national campaign to embed privately paid environmentalist lawyers in state AG offices [Todd Shepherd, Free Beacon; Chris Horner (“Turns out Maryland actually has *two* Bloomberg-funded ‘Special Assistant Attorneys General’ to pursue Bloomberg priorities”); earlier and more here, here, here, and here]
• “Coincidentally or not, current and former members of the Baltimore Orioles, which the Angelos family owns, were dispatched to the State House for a good will visit while the [Angelos asbestos] bill was under consideration.” [Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters]
• Hospital price regulation in Maryland is often depicted as an unqualified policy success. Is it? [Chris Pope, The Hill]

In miniature, October 19

• Federal judge rejects four states’ suit challenging Congress’s changes to the SALT (state and local tax) exemption. Maryland AG Brian Frosh wasted the state’s resources and credibility on a suit that should never have been filed [Ilya Somin]
• While on the subject, it’s worth noting how the state’s drug pricing law went down in flames, although the blame for its indefensibility would in this case be the legislature’s [Josh Kurtz, Maryland Matters]
• Campaign to raise legal age of marriage to as high as 18 belatedly runs into some serious opposition as ACLU, other liberal groups concerned with youth rights and autonomy join conservatives skeptical of forcing out-of-wedlock births and libertarians who support, well, liberty [Dartunorro Clark, MSNBC] Due credit to the Women’s Law Center of Maryland, which helped block a bad bill of this sort in the 2018 Assembly, pointing out that there are other ways to detect and intervene against involuntary marriages [Scott Dance, Baltimore Sun; an opposing view (i.e., favoring ban) from UMD sociologist Philip Cohen]
• Yuripzy Morgan took time on her WBAL radio show to discuss my article on the Supreme Court’s consideration of job bias law and you can listen here;
• Stephen J.K. Walters makes a case for aerial surveillance as a Baltimore policing tool [Law and Liberty] In 2016 my colleague Matthew Feeney expressed libertarian misgivings about the “secret and indiscriminate surveillance” such systems enable;
• “Maryland’s State Pension May Be Only 35 Percent Funded” [Carol Park, Maryland Public Policy Institute]

In miniature, September 22

• “Maryland Court of Appeals Will Hear Challenge to Baltimore’s Food Truck Rules” [Andrew Wimer, IJ press release]
• Four of eight members of Maryland House delegation (Reps. Raskin, Cummings, Sarbanes, Brown) would eliminate private health insurance [Allison Stevens, Maryland Matters]
• A view from the Left: “Why I support single-member districts” [Richard DeShay Elliott]
• Maryland legislature should address outcome of Court of Appeals case in which 16 year old girl was brought up on child pornography distribution charges for “sexting” video of herself engaged in sex that was both consensual and legal [David Post, Volokh Conspiracy]
• Ban on foam packaging “did not encourage” staying around: Dart Container closing Carroll, Harford County warehouse and distribution centers [Jon Kelvey, Carroll County Times, earlier on polystyrene bans here, here]
• Looking for an alternative to the pro-secessionist lyrics in “Maryland, My Maryland”? There’s a competing Unionist version [Todd Eberly, Free Stater last year]

In miniature, August 26

• “Update on the Preakness Takings Case” [Ilya Somin, Volokh; AP/WTOP; earlier]
• Remembering Urbana’s historic Peter Pan Inn and its exotic Florida relations [Chris Haugh, “Stories in Stone” (Mount Olivet Cemetery)]
• Imperial capital will not relax its grip: Maryland senators aim to block relocation of USDA jobs to the Midwest [Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters]
• “Court Upholds Baltimore’s Cronyist Rules Limiting Food Trucks” [Scott Shackford, Reason]
• Abell Foundation: years of tough child support measures have backfired [Yvonne Wenger, Baltimore Sun, gateway to report, more]
• “Why Baltimore Abandoned Johns Hopkins’ Humane Vision” [Anthony Paletta, American Conservative]

In miniature, May 27

• “Poll: 61 percent of D.C.-area residents favor plan to add toll lanes to Beltway, I-270” and the same number prevails in Montgomery County although you’d never know it from the county’s political leadership [Katherine Shaver and Emily Guskin, Washington Post] “Maryland has pledged – and federal law requires – that the number of toll-free lanes will not be reduced.” [Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters]
• Sen. Bob Cassilly (R-Harford): “Kirwan will bankrupt the State of Maryland” [Erika Butler, Harford Aegis]
• “Property Rights Matter: Lessons from a Failing City” [Stephen J.K. Walters, Law and Liberty; my two cents on eminent domain, Pimlico, and the Preakness Stakes]
• Thanks WBAL host Yuripzy Morgan for mentioning me in discussing the (bad) idea of a law capping credit card interest rates [audio]
• Thread on Baltimore’s crisis of development and corruption [Brian Gaither on Twitter]
• In its first three months after implementation Maryland’s “red flag” law “prompted more than 300 protective orders across the state,” and an Anne Arundel man was shot dead by county officers while being served a gun confiscation order [Natalie Jones, Capital News Service/Maryland Matters]

In miniature, April 10

Sine Die edition:

• General Assembly declined chance to fix Sixth District gerrymander, rolling the dice on whether Supreme Court ruling will lead to crisis in mid-summer [Tamela Baker, Herald-Mail (Hagerstown); Samantha Hogan, Frederick News Post; earlier]
• Not only was it a win for well-heeled alcohol interests when the General Assembly snatched liquor regulatory powers away from Comptroller Peter Franchot, but it also pleased some advocates of nanny state controls on alcohol, who also prefer a regime of higher prices and less competition. Bad all ’round;
• Sens. Jill Carter (D-Baltimore) and Michael Hough (R-Frederick County) are right: doing away with statutes of limitations would be an engine of new injustice, and the General Assembly was right not to pass the bill by Del. C.T. Wilson (D-Charles County) attempting to change that [Danielle Gaines, Maryland Matters]
• How’d the Maryland Senate come to *unanimously* approve a late-filed asbestos-suit $$$ grab that even Brian Frosh’s office says could be held unconstitutional? Ask Peter Angelos and Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher [Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters, Danielle Gaines (Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera appears before committee “to underscore for you how deeply we oppose this attempt to intrude upon the Judiciary”), more (Frosh)]
• Glad these didn’t pass: “just cause eviction” bill would have impaired property rights and economic vitality in Montgomery County [unfavorable House report; Harvey Jacobs, WTOP]; various restrictions on gun rights, although the Assembly did abolish the handgun permits board to which citizens could appeal adverse police decisions; “source of income discrimination” legislation that would have compelled landlords to participate in the Section 8 voucher program [unfavorable report, withdrawn]; collective bargaining for student athletes [unfavorable report, withdrawn; Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters]
• If your Maryland business pays dues to a statewide business advocacy org that didn’t scream bloody murder about the terrible $15 wage bill, time to replace that org’s salaried leadership and prepare to rebuild [Richard Douglas, Maryland Reporter, earlier]

In miniature, February 7

• “Officials, Lawyers Lament Inability to Root Out Police Corruption” [Danielle Gaines, Maryland Matters]
• And the problems go way, way back, as a new memoir relates (stealing from Sears at Christmastime!) [Fern Shen, Baltimore Brew]
• This might help: “Md. Lawmakers should make police discipline records public” [David Plymyer, Baltimore Sun]
• “If policymakers want their states to be people magnets, they should get their household tax burdens down to 8.5 percent of personal income or lower.” [Chris Edwards]
• In the name of combating human trafficking, a term susceptible of many definitions, Frederick County council gets ready to impose new licensing burdens on hotels, motels, “bodywork” studios [Allan Etzler, Frederick News Post]
• How to densify MoCo [Seth Grimes, Greater Greater Washington]

In miniature, January 12

• The mega-$$$$ in new spending from the Kirwan Commission education recommendations will be solid, the promises of accountability less so [James V. Shuls, Maryland Public Policy Institute; Len Lazarick, Marc Tucker, Lazarick]
• Speaking of which, is the problem with Baltimore schools underfunding? [Jason Bedrick, Cato, 2015] “Baltimore schools spend 27% more than Fairfax County [Va.] schools per student and a majority of the money comes not from the city but from the state and federal government.” [Alex Tabarrok] “The city of Baltimore received over $1.8 billion from President Barack Obama’s stimulus law, including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime prevention.” [Elizabeth Harrington, Free Beacon]
• Michael Busch as full-time Anne Arundel County recreation administrator, and more problems with letting state legislators work for local governments [David Plymyer, Maryland Matters]
• Tales of Baltimore’s gun buyback [Jazz Shaw, Zuri Davis]
• Maryland’s evolving approach to expert testimony [Derek Stikeleather, Maryland Appellate Blog]
• North Howard St., Baltimore’s old Antique Row, struggles amid zoning constraints and neglect from City Hall [Antonio Grana, Market Urbanism Report]

In miniature, December 21

• MoCo vs. NoVa: “’Our corporate tax rate in Maryland is 8.25%. In Virginia, it’s 6%,’ said Basu. ‘That’s a major factor in these site-location decisions.'” [quoted in Bruce DePuyt, Maryland Matters] Maryland got off lucky in Amazon decision [Eric Stokan and Roy T. Meyers, Len Lazarick, Maryland Reporter, Michael Horney, Free State Foundation and related] “Attract Businesses like Amazon with Lean Government, Not Pork” [Vanessa Brown Calder and Chris Edwards, Crain’s New York/Cato and Chris Edwards on interstate tax migration]
• Poor Baltimore, over-policed and under-policed at once [Scott Beyer, Governing]
• Cash exactions levied on land development should meet constitutional standards whether grounded in official discretion or legislation [Ilya Shapiro and Reilly Stephens on Cato Institute brief in Dabbs v. Anne Arundel County]
• “Manufacturers denounce Baltimore climate lawsuit” [National Association of Manufacturers, background]
• Anne Arundel County man killed by cops showing up to confiscate his guns under Maryland “red flag” law [Baltimore Sun, WBFF]
• “Maryland’s New #MeToo Law May Do Little to Expose Workplace Harassment” [Christopher Humber, National Law Review]