SEC. 15. Any Judge of the Court of Appeals or of an in-
termediate court of appeal who heard the cause below either as a
trial Judge or as a Judge of any intermediate court of appeal as
the case may be, shall not participate in the decision. In every
case an opinion, in writing, shall be filed within three months af-
ter the argument or submission of the cause; and the judgment
of the Court of Appeals shall be final and conclusive.

SEC. 16. Provision shall be made by Law for publishing
Reports of all causes, argued and determined in the Court of
Appeals and in the intermediate courts of appeal, which the
Judges thereof, respectively, shall designate as proper for publi-
cation.

SEC. 17. '¹² There shall be a Clerk of the Court of Appeals,
who shall be appointed by and shall hold his office at the plea-
sure of said Court of Appeals.

SEC. 18. (a) The Court of Appeals from time to time
shall adopt rules and regulations concerning the practice and
procedure in and the administration of the appellate courts and
in the other courts of this State, which shall have the force of
law until rescinded, changed or modified by the Court of Ap-
peals or otherwise by law. The power of courts other than the
Court of Appeals to make rules of practice and procedure, or
administrative rules, shall be subject to the rules and regulations
adopted by the Court of Appeals or otherwise by law.

(b)¹¹⁴ The Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals shall be the
administrative head of the judicial system of the State. He shall
from time to time require, from each of the judges of the Circuit
Courts, of the District Court and of any intermediate courts of
appeal, reports as to the judicial work and business of each of
the judges and their respective courts. He may, in case of a va-
cancy, or of the illness, disqualification or other absence of a
judge or for the purpose of relieving an accumulation of business
in any court assign any judge except a judge of the Orphans*
Court to sit temporarily in any court except an Orphans' Court.
Any judge assigned by the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals
pursuant to this section has all the power and authority pertain-
ing to a judge of the court to which he is so assigned; and his
power and authority shall continue with respect to all cases (in-
cluding any motion, or other matters incidental thereto) which
may come before him by virtue of such assignment until his ac-
tion thereon shall be completed. In the absence of the Chief
Judge of the Court of Appeals the provisions of this section shall
be applicable to the senior judge present in the Court of Ap-
peals. The powers of the Chief Judge set forth in this section
shall be subject to any rule and regulation adopted by the Court
of Appeals,

SEC. 18A. ¹¹⁵ Vacant.

SEC. 18B. (a) For the purpose of implementing the
amendments to this article, dealing with the selection and tenure
of appellate court judges, the following provisions shall govern.

(b) Each judge of an appellate court who is in office for an
elected term on the effective date of these amendments, unless he
dies, resigns, retires, or is otherwise lawfully removed, shall con-
tinue in office until the general election next after the end of his
elected term, or until his seventieth birthday, whichever first oc-
curs. His continuance in office is then subject to the provisions
of section 5A (c) and (d) of this article, applicable to judges of
that court, but in no event shall any judge continue in office af-
ter his seventieth birthday.

(c) Each judge of a court specified in subsection (b) who is in
office on the effective date of these amendments, but who has not
been elected to that office by the voters, shall, within fifteen days
after the effective date of these amendments, be reappointed to
that office. His continuance in office is then subject to the provi-
sions of section 5A (c) and (d) of this article, applicable to judg-
es of that court, but in no event shall any judge continue in of-
fice after his seventieth birthday.

SEC. 19. The State shall be divided into eight Judicial
Circuits, in manner following, viz. : The Counties of Worcester,
Wicomico, Somerset, and Dorchester, shall constitute the First
Circuit; the Counties of Caroline, Talbot, Queen Anne's, Kent
and Cecil, the Second; the Counties of Baltimore and Harford,
the Third; the Counties of Allegany, Garrett, and Washington,
the Fourth; the Counties of Carroll, Howard and Anne Arundel,
the Fifth; the Counties of Montgomery and Frederick, the Sixth;
the Counties of Prince George's, Charles, Calvert, and St. Ma-
ry's, the Seventh; and Baltimore City, the Eighth.

110

SEC. 20. (a) There shall be a Circuit Court for each coun-
ty and for Baltimore City. The Circuit Courts shall have and ex-
ercise, in the respective counties, and Baltimore City, all the
power, authority and jurisdiction, original and appellate, which
the Circuit Courts of the counties exercised on the effective date
of these amendments, and the greater or lesser jurisdiction here-
after prescribed by law.

(b) The judges of the Circuit Courts for Montgomery and
Harford counties shall each, alternately and in rotation and on
schedules to be established by those judges, sit as an Orphans'
Court for their County, and shall have and exercise all the pow-
er, authority and jurisdiction which the present Orphans' Courts
now have and exercise, or which may hereafter be provided by
law.

no
SEC. 21. (a) Subject to the provisions of subsection (b) the
General Assembly shall determine by law the number of judges