Page:The Federal and state constitutions vol1.djvu/451

Rh thereto, before either branch of the legislature, and shall perform such other duties as may be assigned him by law; and in order that no inconvenience may result to the public service, from the taking effect of the amendments proposed to said article five by the legislature of 1861, no officer shall be superseded or suspended thereby, until the election and qualification of the several officers provided for in said amendments.

1. The judicial power of this State shall be vested in a supreme court, in district courts, in county courts, in probate courts, and in justices of the peace, and in such recorders and other inferior courts as the legislature may establish in any incorporated city or town.

. 2. The supreme court shall consist of a chief justice and four associate justices. The presence of three justices shall be necessary for the transaction of business, excepting such business as may be done at chambers, and the concurrence of three justices shall be necessary to pronounce a judgment.

. 3. The justices of the supreme court shall be elected by the qualified electors of the State at special elections to be provided by law, at which elections no officer other than judicial shall be elected, except a superintendent of public instruction. The first election for justices of the supreme court shall be held in the year 1863. The justices shall hold their offices for the term of ten years from the 1st day of January next after their election, except those elected at the first election, who, at their first meeting, shall so classify themselves by lot that one justice shall go out of office every two years. The justice having the shortest term to serve shall be the chief justice.

. 4. The supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction in all cases in equity; also, in all cases at law which involve the title or possession of real estate, or the legality of any tax, impost, assessment, toll, or municipal fine, or in which the demand, exclusive of interest, or the value of the property in controversy, amounts to three hundred dollars; also, in all cases arising in the probate courts; and also, in all criminal cases amounting to felony, oh questions of law alone. The court shall also have power to issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, and habeas corpus, and also all writs necessary or proper to the complete exercise of its appellate jurisdiction. Each of the justices shall have power to issue writs of habeas corpus to any part of the State, upon petition on behalf of any person held in actual custody, and may make such writs returnable before himself, or the supreme court, or before any district court, or any county court in the State, or before any judge of said courts.

. 5. The State shall be divided by the legislature of 1863 into fourteen judicial districts, subject to such alteration from time to time, by a two-thirds vote of all the members elected to both houses, as the public good may require; in each of which there shall be a district court, and for each of which a district judge shall be elected by the qualified electors of the district, at the special judicial elections to be held as provided for the election of justices of the supreme court, by section three of this article. The district judges shall hold their offices for the term of six years from the 1st day of January next after their election. The legislature shall have no power to grant leave of