People are going to jail because they did not pay their rent.
That would not happen if they had a lawyer.
I’ve introduced bills before to require that an attorney be provided in certain legal situations.
After reading the Sun article about this procedure, civil attachment, I’m working on legislation to require that legal counsel be provided for renters at the appropriate point in this process.
The landlord who pursues civil attachment most frequently is Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Trump.
See http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/investigations/bs-md-kushner-arrests-20170812-story.html
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Last week, I received an email from the National Association of Jewish Legislators regarding legislative efforts in Ohio and Illinois to label neo-Nazi groups terrorists.
Maryland law defines a legitimate law enforcement purpose as the “investigation, detection, or analysis of a crime or a violation of the Maryland vehicle laws or the operation of terrorist or missing or endangered person searches or alerts.”
Criminal statues are interpreted narrowly, I learned in law school. Someone should not be put in jail unless the legislature clearly intended to make their actions a crime.
My next step is to ask the Attorney General’s Office whether the language above includes both domestic and international terrorism.