692/Maryland Manual

the Court of Appeals shall lose its confidential character, except
as ordered by the Court of Appeals. No judge shall participate as
a member of the Commission in any proceedings involving his
own conduct, and the Governor shall appoint another judge as a
substitute member of the Commission for those proceedings. The
Court of Appeals shall prescribe by rule the means to implement
and enforce the powers of the Commission and the practice and
procedure before the Commission.

(b) Upon any recommendation of the Commission, the Court of
Appeals, after a hearing and upon a finding of misconduct while
in office, or of persistent failure to perform the duties of his office,
or of conduct prejudicial to the proper administration of justice,
may remove the judge from office or may censure or otherwise
discipline him, or the Court of Appeals, after hearing and upon a
finding of disability which is or is likely to become permanent and
which seriously interferes with the performance of his duties, may
retire the judge from office. A judge removed under this section,
and his surviving spouse, shall have the rights and privileges
accruing from his judicial service only to the extent prescribed by
the order of removal. A judge retired under this section shall have
the rights and privileges prescribed by law for other retired
judges. No judge of the Court of Appeals shall sit in judgment in
any hearing involving his own conduct.

(c) This section is alternative to, and cumulative with, the
methods of retirement and removal provided in Sections 3 and 4
of this Article, and in Section 26 of Article III of this Constitu-
tion.

SEC. 5." Upon every occurrence or recurrence of a vacancy
through death, resignation, removal, disqualification by reason of
age or otherwise, or expiration of the term of fifteen years of any
judge of a circuit court, or creation of the office of any such
judge, or in any other way, the Governor shall appoint a person
duly qualified to fill said office, who shall hold the same until the
election and qualification of his successor. His successor shall be
elected at the first biennial general election for Representatives in
Congress after the expiration of the term of fifteen years (if the
vacancy occurred in that way) or the first such general election
after one year after the occurrence of the vacancy in any other
way than through expiration of such term. Except in case of
reappointment of a judge upon expiration of his term of fifteen
years, no person shall be appointed who will become disqualified
by reason of age and thereby unable to continue to hold office
until the prescribed time when his successor would have been
elected.

SEC. 5A.'°° (a) A vacancy in the office of a judge of an
appellate court, whether occasioned by the death, resignation,
removal, retirement, disqualification by reason of age, or rejection
by the voters of an incumbent, the creation of the office of a
judge, or otherwise, shall be filled as provided in this section.

(b) Upon the occurrence of a vacancy the Governor shall
appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a
person duly qualified to fill said office who shall hold the same
until the election for continuance in office as provided in
subsections (c) and (d),

(c) The continuance in office of a judge of the Court of Appeals
is subject to approval or rejection by the registered voters of the
appellate judicial circuit from which he was appointed at the next
general election following the expiration of one year from the date
of the occurrence of the vacancy which he was appointed to fill,
and at the general election next occurring every ten years
thereafter.

'"Amended by Chapter 417, Acts of 1880, ratified Nov. 8, 1881;
Chapter 772, Acts of 1943, ratified Nov. 7, 1944; Chapter 703, Acts
of 1945, ratified Nov. 5, 1946; Chapter 551, Acts of 1975, ratified
Nov. 2, 1976; Chapter 523, Acts of 1980, ratified Nov. 4, 1980.
""Added by Chapter 551, Acts of 1975, ratified Nov. 2, 1976.

Article IV

(d) The continuance in office of a judge of the Court of Special
Appeals is subject to approval or rejection by the registered
voters of the geographical area prescribed by law at the next
general election following the expiration of one year from the date
of the occurrence of the vacancy which he was appointed to fill,
and at the general election next occurring every ten years
thereafter.

(e) The approval or rejection by the registered voters of a judge
as provided for in subsections (c) and (d) shall be a vote for the
judge's retention in office for a term of ten years or his removal.
The judge's name shall be on the appropriate ballot, without
opposition, and the voters shall vote yes or no for his retention in
office. If the voters reject the retention in office of a judge, or if
the vote is tied, the office becomes vacant ten days after
certification of the election returns.

(f) An appellate court judge shall retire when he attains his
seventieth birthday.

(g) A member of the General Assembly who is otherwise
qualified for appointment to judicial office is not disqualified by
reason of his membership in a General Assembly which proposed
or enacted any constitutional amendment or statute affecting the
method of selection. Continuance in office, or retirement or
removal of a judge, the creation or abolition of a court, an
increase or decrease in the number of judges of any court, or an
increase or decrease in the salary, pension or other allowances of
any judge-

SEC. 6.¹⁰¹ All Judges shall, by virtue of their offices, be
Conservators of the Peace throughout the State; and no fees, or
perquisites, commission, or reward of any kind shall be allowed to
any Judge in this State, besides his annual salary, for the
discharge of any Judicial duty.

SEC. 7. No Judge shall sit in any case wherein he may be
interested, or where either of the parties may be connected with
him, by affinity or consanguinity, within such degrees as now are,
or may hereafter be prescribed by Law, or where he shall have
been of counsel in the case.

SEC. 8.¹⁰² (a) The parties to any cause may submit the same to
the Court for determination without the aid of a jury.

(b) In all cases of presentments or indictments for offenses that
are punishable by death, on suggestion in writing under oath of
either of the parties to the proceedings that the party cannot have
a fair and impartial trial in the court in which the proceedings
may be pending, the court shall order and direct the record of
proceedings in the presentment or indictment to be transmitted to
some other court having jurisdiction in such case for trial-

(c) In all other cases of presentment or indictment, and in all
suits or actions at law or issues from the Orphans' Court pending
in any of the courts of law in this State which have jurisdiction
over the cause or case, in addition to the suggestion in writing of
either of the parties to the cause or case that the party cannot
have a fair and impartial trial in the court in which the cause or
case may be pending, it shall be necessary for the party making
the suggestion to make it satisfactorily appear to the court that
the suggestion is true, or that there is reasonable ground for the
same; and thereupon the court shall order and direct the record of
the proceedings in the cause or case to be transmitted to some
other court, having jurisdiction in the cause or case, for trial. The
right of removal also shall exist on suggestion in a cause or case in
which all the judges of the court may be disqualified under the
provisions of this Constitution to sit- The court to which the
record of proceedings in such suit or action, issue, presentment or
indictment is transmitted, shall hear and determine that cause or