Attorney General's Office, NAACP Review Civil Rights Complaint Against Laurel

The state’s Attorney General’s Office, NAACP and ACLU of Maryland are reviewing a civil rights complaint filed against the City of Laurel concerning an October 2010 election law that could be in violation of state election laws.

The complaint was filed early June in the Attorney General's Office of Civil Rights, according to David Paulson, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s office.

“A local, state-elected official has requested that these laws be reviewed. They are currently under a review from the state’s Attorney General,” he said. “Does this law conflict with state law? It may or may not… It seems very odd and problematic.”

The law in question requires any person running for elected office to undergo a background check that is reviewed by the city’s Board of Elections. If an applicant’s background check shows that he or she has been convicted of, or entered a plea of no contest, to any crime which is a felony or a misdemeanor of moral turpitude, they will loose the right to hold an elected position in the city.

During a work session on June 1, the council even discussed the possibility of posting these background checks on the city's website.

But officials from the Prince George’s County branch of the NAACP charge that the law was sloppily put together and unfairly targets minorities, who have higher incarceration rates than whites, and is therefore potentially unconstitutional, according to branch President Bob Ross.

“We’re looking at the whole ordinance; it’s poorly done,” Ross said. “What is it they’re trying to accomplish? It unfairly targets people of color. We’d like them to remove it.”

Meredith Curtis, a spokeswoman for the ACLU of Maryland, confirmed that it was reviewing the law.  

"We have concerns about it," she said but declined to comment further.

But these groups have little say in convincing the city to repeal or amend the law, according to Paulson, and city officials contend that the law will safeguard Laurel from corruption that has been Prince George’s County government.

Laurel Council President Michael R. Leszcz said the city was not trying to exclude any group from the election process. He declined to directly comment on the complaint filed against the city.

“I value honesty, integrity, ethics and morality in public officials,” he said. “I think [the law] lends itself to meeting a higher standard.”

But Ross said the law could set a state, if not national, precedent by requiring public officials to submit to a background check. According to Ross, background checks aren’t a deterrent to corruption because elected officials usually have clean records, as with former County Executive and his wife, Councilwoman , who plead guilty to corruption charges earlier this summer.

As a municipality, the city is within its rights to pass laws governing its own elections. The Attorney General’s Office can only issue an opinion on the matter if the law is challenged in court, according to Paulson.

Ross and officials from the ACLU of Maryland met with the city’s attorney, Bob Manzi, earlier this week. Manzi did not immediately return calls for comment.

Ross said that all options were within reach, including suing the city.

“There is a possibility that we will pursue legal action. Nothing is off the table,” he said.

Click here for Friday's update to the story.