Opinion ID: 2340040
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The principle

Text: The fourteenth amendment to the United States Constitution provides in pertinent part: No State shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. U.S. Const. amend XIV, § 1. Although the Maryland Constitution contains no express equal protection clause, it is well settled that its concept is embodied in the due process requirement of Article 24 of the Declaration of Rights. [8] Attorney General v. Waldron, 289 Md. 683, 704, 426 A.2d 929 (1981); Board of Supervisors of Elections v. Goodsell, 284 Md. 279, 293 n. 7, 396 A.2d 1033, 1040 (1979). Article 24 has been interpreted to apply in like manner and to the same extent as the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. [9] Hornbeck v. Somerset Co. Bd. of Educ., 295 Md. 597, 640, 458 A.2d 758 (1983). Thus, decisions of the Supreme Court on the Fourteenth Amendment are practically direct authorities. Bureau of Mines v. George's Creek, 272 Md. 143, 156, 321 A.2d 748, 755 (1974). Before applying those principles embodied in the fourteenth amendment and Article 24, we must first examine Article 27, § 593, the statute at issue, to determine what rights are claimed to be violated by its implementation.