Judge in Tuition Referendum Case Was Overturned on Slots Referendum

The Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge who will hear the to place a law on the 2012 ballot that would grant in-state tuition to some illegal immigrants was previously overturned on a similar case.

Judge Ronald A. Silkworth has been assigned the case filed Aug. 1 by Casa De Maryland.

In 2010, Silkworth was the judge in a case involving a referendum to place a slots emporium at Arundel Mills Mall. The Cordish Cos. challenged petitioners, claiming the issue was one of appropriations and therefore banned by law from a referendum vote.

Silkworth agreed and threw out the referendum, only to be overturned by the state Court of Appeals.

If all this sounds familiar, it should.

Casa De Maryland, , claims the bill known by some as the Maryland DREAM Act (this title is not officially on the legislation) is an appropriations issue and cannot be challenged at the ballot box. The group is also claiming that some of the signatures collected should be thrown out.

The Court of Appeals ruled last year that the slots issue was about policy rather than an appropriation. The referendum was ultimately defeated at the ballot box.

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