STATE SUPREMES HEAR ARGUMENTS ON 2023 CHILD VICTIMS ACT: Appellate lawyers spent more than three hours Tuesday arguing before Maryland’s highest court about the constitutionality of the state’s Child Victims Act of 2023, which eliminated time limits for lawsuits from people sexually abused as children. Much of the debate in the Supreme Court of Maryland focused on a 2017 law that served as the precursor for the child victims statute. The older law extended to age 38 the deadline for a victim of child sexual abuse to sue their abuser or institutions that enabled their torment. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Sun.
- The challenges to the Maryland Child Victims Act came from the Annapolis-based Key School, the Board of Education of Harford County, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington DC. The three challenges seek to overturn the 2023 law on constitutional grounds, or severely limit its ability to allow lawsuits based on allegations that are, in some cases, decades old. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
- The decision from the state’s highest court will have consequential implications for survivors throughout Maryland. The justices did not say when a ruling would be issued. “Some of us have been fighting for this for 30 years. And this is an extraordinary day,” said Carolyn Surrick, who says she survived sexual abuse while a student at the Key School. Dylan Segelbaum/The Baltimore Banner.
RACHEL MORIN’s MOTHER TELLS U.S. HOUSE PANEL ‘WE NEED TO CLOSE BORDERS:’ The mother of Rachel Morin, whose killing in Harford County last year has become part of the national border security debate, tearfully told a U.S. House committee Tuesday that “we need to close the borders” and that her concerns are not “some partisan thing.” Jeff Barker/The Baltimore Sun.
- Patricia Morin told the House Judiciary Committee the story of a 14-year-old girl, abducted from her home by a criminally insane man and forced to walk 60 miles, without food or water, and “at night she was raped multiple times.” “I’m that teenager,” Morin said, choking up. “And I can tell you that what I suffered as a teenager at the hands of a criminally insane man is nothing compared to the horrors that my daughter suffered.” Steve Crane/Maryland Matters.
DRUG BOARD OKS PROCESS TO REACH UPPER PAYMENT LIMIT TO CAP COSTS ON STATE PLANS: The Prescription Drug Affordability Board finally approved a process that could lead to “upper payment limits” on high-cost prescription drugs for state health plans, a hurdle it has faced since the board’s creation. The board early this summer selected six drugs for “cost review” that could be subject to the new procedures approved Tuesday, which would use a variety of methods to bring costs for medications that pose an “affordability challenge.” One of those could be the upper payment limit. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
***BREWSTER BOOK EVENT: U.S. Sen. Daniel Brewster lived a life full of inspiring highs and debilitating lows. On Sept. 26, 5:30 p.m., join John Frece, author of Self-Destruction: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of U.S. Senator Daniel B. Brewster, in conversation with Gerry Brewster, former delegate and son of the late senator, moderated by historian Charles Mitchell at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore. Explore the senator’s life and career like his run in the 1964 presidential primary election and his fight for civil rights. A book signing and light reception will follow. You must register here. Read the book review in Maryland Reporter.***
DEMS, REPUBLICANS MOODS AND MILES APART OVER PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE: In a family-owned Salvadoran restaurant in Wheaton earlier this summer, the Democratic faithful in Montgomery County watched mostly in silence and lingered at the bar afterward as President Joe Biden stumbled through a debate that would seal his fate as the leader of his party. Just over two months later in the same local haunt, the mood had shifted into celebration, the margaritas and Coronas flowing during a rematch that was anything but quiet for a new Democratic nominee at the top of the ticket. Thirty-five miles but worlds of ideological differences apart, Baltimore Republicans met at another Salvadoran restaurant, El Salvador, in Fells Point. Sam Janesch and Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
BALTIMORE COUNTY RESPONDERS MARK 23 YEARS SINCE 9-11 ATTACKS: Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, when al-Qaida members hijacked four planes, crashed two into the World Trade Center towers in New York City and one into the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. Passengers on the fourth plane brought it down in a field in Pennsylvania before it could reach its target, sacrificing their own lives. The Baltimore County responders were among those who switched off in 12-hour shifts — spending half their days at the base, trying to sleep on cots or on the floor, and half of their days in the wreckage. They searched for survivors, cleared a path to allow the Federal Bureau of Investigation to reach a gold and silver reserve under the twin towers, two responders remembered, and tried to make sense of the colorless wreckage around them. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Sun.
OPINION: A CARROLL REPUBLICAN FED UP WITH GAMESMANSHIP: Del. Eric Bouchat was elected to the House of Delegates in 2022. But it didn’t take long for him to discover that it would be difficult for the Republican to get things done. To be a Republican in the Maryland General Assembly essentially presented him with two choices. First, he could put his head down and work at the committee level to craft legislation that would draw bipartisan support. It’s tedious stuff, this detailed policymaking. …The other choice was to be highly partisan, score political points whenever possible, and make speeches that would get a lot of “likes” on social media. Peter Jensen/The Baltimore Sun.
BA CO COUNCIL CHAIR HITS BACK AT ACLU OVER CRITICISM OF EXPANSION BILL: Baltimore County Council Chair Izzy Patoka fired back at the ACLU of Maryland over its contention that a recent bill he sponsored could violate federal and state laws. The Pikesville Democrat previously derided the objection as a “political stunt.” The ACLU of Maryland said last month that a bill the seven-member council passed in July asking voters to add two new members included a proposed redistricting map that could violate the federal Voting Rights Act. The map would create two new districts, including one in majority-Black western Baltimore County, which the ACLU said would dilute Black residents’ voting power. The group also sued Baltimore County in December 2021 over redistricting. Lia Russell/The Baltimore Sun.
DAVID SMITH ON THE BALLOT IN BALTIMORE CITY: David Smith, the billionaire Baltimore County media mogul of Sinclair Broadcasting who finances PEACE, is using the charter amendment process as a powerful lever to accomplish his goals in Baltimore city. In addition to term limits and shrinking the City Council, PEACE has previously floated a proposal to institute recall elections but did not collect the required number of signatures to get it on the ballot. Adam Willis and Lee O. Sanderlin/The Baltimore Banner.
