Today marks fifty years from the day our colleague, The Hon. Charles E. Moylan, Jr., took his seat on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Here is his official Maryland Manual photo. Please allow me to blow your mind for a few tweets. /1 @MDJudiciary #AppellateTwitter

The Court of Special Appeals was created by the General Assembly in 1966, initially with five judges. A sixth seat was added in 1970 so that the Court, which always had sat en banc, could sit in panels. Governor Marvin Mandel appointed Judge Moylan to fill that new seat. /2

Judge Moylan keeps a chart of each seat on the Court and who has held it, and assigns each of us our ordinal number. I am #61; whoever is appointed to our current vacancy will be #70. Judge Moylan is #6. He has served with every judge who has ever served on this Court. EVER. /3

I first met Judge Moylan right after I was appointed, and he asked me what grade I was in when he joined the Court. (I was in preschool) One member of today's Court had not yet been born (and wouldn't be for a few years) when Judge Moylan took the bench. /4

When he was appointed to the Court, Judge Moylan was the elected State's Attorney for Baltimore City, a role he had held since 1964. Think about that: Judge Moylan got to explain Miranda v. Arizona and Terry v. Ohio to the Baltimore Police Department. /5

I don't know if he's the first judge to serve 50 years on one court, the first Maryland judge to serve that long, or any of those firsts. But a lot has to go right for someone to serve so long. You have to be appointed at a young age (39 in his case), and stay healthy. /6

The Maryland Constitution requires judges to retire at age 70. When Judge Moylan retired, he had served for more than 30 years. After his birthday in December, Judge Moylan will have the opportunity to be the second COSA judge to sit at age 90. /7

I have no idea how many opinions Judge Moylan has written and reported, but it's a big number and still growing. He still sits regularly and writes prolifically. Here he is on our Court's Conference yesterday appearing by video on the last day of his 50th year. /8

He's not on Twitter--he doesn't use a computer at all--but please join me in commemorating Judge Moylan's half-century of judicial service to the people of the State of Maryland, and especially to the Court of Special Appeals. /end