shall be confidential and privileged, except as provided by rule of
the Court of Appeals; the record and any proceeding filed with
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 im-
plement 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 ex-
tent 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 HI of this Constitu-
tion.

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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 elec-
tion 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 fif-
teen years, no person shall be appointed who will become dis-
qualified 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 ap-
pellate court, whether occasioned by the death, resignation, re-
moval, 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 ap-
point, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a per-
son 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 Ap-
peals 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 ap-
pointed to fill, and at the general election next occurring every
ten years thereafter.

(d) The continuance in office of a judge of the Court of Special
Appeals is subject to approval or rejection by the registered vot-
ers of the geographical area prescribed by law at the next gener-
al 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 there-
after.

(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 re-
tention 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.

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

(g) A member of the General Assembly who is otherwise qual-
ified for appointment to judicial office is not disqualified by rea-
son 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 re-
moval 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 Con-
servators of the Peace throughout the State; and no fees, or per-
quisites, commission, or reward of any kind shall be allowed to
any Judge in this State, besides his annual salary, for the dis-
charge of any Judicial duty.

SEC. 7. No Judge shall sit in any case wherein he may be in-
terested, 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. (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 proceed-
ings may be pending, the court shall order and direct the record
of proceedings in the presentment or indictment to be transmit-
ted 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 pend-
ing in any of the courts of law in this State which have jurisdic-
tion over the cause or case, in addition to the suggestion in writ-
ing 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 di-
rect the record of the proceedings in the cause or case to be
transmitted to some other court, having jurisdiction in the cause