2. First election of state officers. 3. Superintendent of public works; appointment; powers and duties. 4. Superintendent of state prisons; appointment; powers and duties. 5. Commissioners of the land office; of the canal fund; canal board. 6. Powers and duties of boards. 7. State treasurer; suspension by governor. 8. Certain offices abolished. 9. Civil service appointments and promotions. § 1. State officers. The Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General and State Engineer and Surveyor shall be chosen at a general election, at the times and places of electing the Governor and Lieutenant-Governor, and shall hold their offices for two years, except as provided in section two of this article. Each of the officers in this article named, excepting the Speaker of the Assembly, shall, at stated times during his continuance in office, receive for his services a compensation which shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected; nor shall he receive to his use any fees or perquisites of office or other compensation. No person shall be elected to the office of State Engineer and Surveyor who is not a practical civil engineer. Const. 1846, art. V, §§ 1, 2. § 2. First election of state officers. The first election of the Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General and State Engineer and Surveyor, pursuant to this article, shall be held in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninetyfive, and their terms of office shall begin on the first day of January following, and shall be for three years. At the general election in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, and every two years thereafter, their successors shall be chosen for the term of two years. New. § 3. Superintendent of public works; appointment; powers and duties of. A Superintendent of Public Works shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and hold his office until the end of the term of the Governor by whom he was nominated, and until his successor is appointed and qualified. He shall receive a compensation to be fixed by law. He shall be required by law to give security for the faithful execution of his office before entering upon the duties thereof. He shall be charged with the execution of all laws relating to the repair and navigation of the canals, and also of those relating to the construction and improvement of the canals, except so far as the execution of the laws relating to such construction or improvement shall be confided to the State Engineer and Surveyor; subject to the control of the Legislature, he shall make the rules and regulations for the navigation or use of the canals. He may be suspended or removed from office by the Governor, whenever, in his judgment, the public interest shall so require; but in case of the removal of such Superintendent of Public Works from office, the Governor shall file with the Secretary of State a statement of the cause of such removal, and shall report such removal and the cause thereof to the Legislature at its next session. The Superintendent of Public Works shall appoint not more than three assistant superintendents, whose duties shall be prescribed by him, subject to modification by the Legislature, and who shall receive for their services a compensation to be fixed by law. They shall hold their office for three years, subject to suspension or removal by the Superintendent of Public Works, whenever, in his judgment, the public interest shall so require. Any vacancy in the office of any such assistant superintendent shall be filled for the remainder of the term for which he was appointed, by the Superintendent of Public Works; but in case of the suspension or removal of any such assistant superintendent by him, he shall at once report to the Governor, in writing, the cause of such removal. All other persons employed in the care and management of the canals, except collectors of tolls, and those in the department of the State Engineer and Surveyor, shall be appointed by the Superintendent of Public Works, and be subject to suspension or removal by him. The Superintendent of Public Works shall perform all the duties of the former Canal Commissioners and Board of Canal Commissioners, as now declared by law, until otherwise provided by the Legis lature. The Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall have power to fill vacancies in the office of Superintendent of Public Works; if the Senate be not in session, he may grant commissions which shall expire at the end of the next succeeding session of the Senate. Const. 1846, art. V, § 3, amended in 1874. § 4. Superintendent of state prisons; appointment; powers and duties of. A Superintendent of State Prisons shall be appointed by the Governor, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and hold his office for five years, unless sooner removed; he shall give security in such amount, and with such sureties as shall be required by law for the faithful discharge of his duties; he shall have the superintendence, management and control of state prisons, subject to such laws as now exist or may hereafter be enacted; he shall appoint the agents, wardens, physicians and chaplains of the prisons. The agent and warden of each prison shall appoint all other officers of such prison, except the clerk, subject to the approval of the same by the Superintendent. The Comptroller shall appoint the clerks of the prisons. The Superintendent shall have all the powers and perform all the duties not inconsistent herewith, which were formerly had and performed by the Inspectors of State Prisons. The Governor may remove the Superintendent for cause at any time, giving to him a copy of the charges against him, and an opportunity to be heard in his defense. Const. 1846, art. V, § 4, amended in 1876. § 5. Commissioners of the land office; of the canal fund; canal board. The Lieutenant-Governor, Speaker of the Assembly, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer, Attorney-General and State Engineer and Surveyor shall be the commissioners of the land office. The Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Comptroller, Treasurer and Attorney-General shall be the commissioners of the canal fund. The canal board shall consist of the commissioners of the canal fund, the State Engineer and Surveyor and the Superintendent of Public Works. Const. 1846, art. V, § 5. § 6. Powers and duties of boards. The powers and duties of the respective boards, and of the several officers in this article mentioned, shall be such as now are or hereafter may be prescribed by law. Const. 1846, art. V, § 6. § 7. State treasurer, suspension by governor. The Treasurer may be suspended from office by the Governor, during the recess of the Legislature, and until thirty days after the commencement of the next session of the Legislature, whenever it shall appear to him that such Treasurer has, in any particular, violated his duty. The Governor shall appoint a competent person to discharge the duties of the office during such suspension of the Treasurer. Const. 1846, art. V. § 7. § 8. Certain offices abolished. All offices for the weighing, gauging, measuring, culling or inspecting any merchandise, produce, manufacture or commodity whatever, are hereby abolished; and no such office shall hereafter be created by law; but nothing in this section contained shall abrogate any office created for the purpose of protecting the public health or the interests of the State in its property, revenue, tolls or purchases, or of supplying the people with correct standards of weights and measures, or shall prevent the creation of any office for such purposes hereafter. Const. 1846, art. V, § 8. § 9. Civil service appointments and promotions. Appointments and promotions in the civil service of the State, and of all the civil divisions thereof, including cities and villages, shall be made according to merit and fitness to be ascertained, so far as practicable, by examinations, which, so far as practicable, shall be competitive; provided however, that honorably discharged soldiers and sailors from the army and navy of the United States, in the late civil war, who are citizens and residents of this State, shall be entitled to preference in appointment and promotion without regard to their standing on any list from which such appointment or promotion may be made. Laws shall be made to provide for the enforcement of this section. New. xxvii ARTICLE SIXTH. Sec. 1. Supreme court; how constituted; judicial districts. 2. Judicial departments; appellate division, how constituted; governor 5. City courts abolished; judges become justices of supreme court; 6. Circuit courts and courts of oyer and terminer abolished. 7. Court of appeals. 8. Vacancy in court of appeals, how filled. 9. Jurisdiction of court of appeals. 10. Judges not to hold any other office. 11. Removal of judges. 12. Compensation; age restriction; assignment by governor. 14. County courts. 15. Surrogates' vacancies. courts; 16. Local judicial officers. surrogates, their powers and jurisdiction; 17. Justices of the peace; district court justices. 18. Inferior local courts. 19. Clerks of courts. 20. No judicial officer, except justice of the peace, to receive fees; not to act as attorney or counselor. 21. Publication of statutes. 22. Terms of office of present justices of the peace and local judicial officers. 23. Courts of special sessions. § 1. Supreme court; how constituted; judicial districts. The Supreme Court is continued with general jurisdiction in law and equity, subject to such appellate jurisdiction of the Court of Appeals as now is or may be prescribed by law not inconsistent with this article. The existing judicial districts of the State are continued until changed as hereinafter provided. The Supreme Court shall consist of the Justices now in office, and of the Judges transferred thereto by the fifth section of this article, all of whom shall continue to be Justices of the Supreme Court during their respective terms, and of twelve additional Justices who shall reside in and be chosen by the electors of, the several existing judicial districts, three in the first district, three in the second, and one in each of the other districts; and of their successors. The successors of said Justices shall be chosen by the electors of their respective judicial districts. The Legislature may alter the judicial districts once after every enumeration under the Constitution, of the inhabitants of the State, and thereupon reapportion the Justices to be thereafter elected in the districts so altered. The Legislature may from time to time increase the number of Justices in any judicial district except that the number of Justices in the first and second district or in any of the districts into which the second district may be divided, shall not be increased to exceed one Justice for each eighty thousand, or fraction over forty thousand of the population thereof, as shown by the last State, or Federal census or enumeration, and except that the number of Justices in any other district shall not be increased to exceed one Justice for each sixty thousand or fraction over thirty-five thousand of the population thereof as shown by the last State or Federal census or enumeration. The Legislature may erect out of the second judicial district as now constituted, another judicial district and apportion the Justices in office between the districts, and provide for the election of additional Justices in the new district not exceeding the limit herein provided. Const. 1846, art. VI, § 6, amended in 1905. § 2. Judicial departments; appellate division, how constituted; governor to designate justices; reporter; time and place of holding courts. The Legislature shall divide the State into four judicial departments. The first department shall consist of the county of New York; the others shall be bounded by county lines, and be compact and equal in population as nearly as may be. Once every ten years the Legislature may alter the judicial departments, but without increasing the number thereof. There shall be an Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, consisting of seven Justices in the first department, and of five Justices in each of the other departments. In each department four shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of three shall be necessary to a decision. No more than five Justices shall sit in any case. From all the Justices elected to the Supreme Court the Governor shall designate those who shall constitute the Appellate Division in each department; and he shall designate the Presiding Justice thereof, who shall act as such during his term of office, and shall be a resident of the department. The other Justices shall be designated for terms of five years or the unexpired portions of their respective terms of office, if less than five years. From time to time as the terms of such designations expire, or vacancies occur, he shall make new designations. A majority of the Justices so designated to sit in the Appellate Division, in each department shall be residents of the department. He may also make temporary designations in case of the absence or inability to act of any Justice in the Appellate Division, or in case the Presiding Justice of any Appellate Division shall certify to him that one or more additional Justices are needed for the speedy disposition of the business before it. Whenever the Appellate Division in any department shall be unable to dispose of its business within a reasonable time, a majority of the Presiding Justices of the several departments at a meeting called by the Presiding Justice of the department in arrears may transfer any pending appeals from such departmentment to any other department for hearing and determination. No Justice of the Appellate Division shall, within the department to which he may be designated to perform the duties of an Appellate Justice, exercise any of the powers of a Justice of the Supreme Court, other than those of a Justice out of court, and those pertaining to the Appellate Division, or to the hearing and decision of motions submitted by consent of counsel, but any such Justice, when not actually engaged in performing the duties of such Appellate Justice in the department to which he is designated, may hold any term of the Supreme Court and exercise any of the powers of a Justice of the Supreme Court in any county or judicial district in any other department of the State. From and after the last day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, the Appellate Division shall have the jurisdiction now exercised by the Supreme Court at its General Terms and by the General Terms of the Court of Common Pleas for the City and County of New York, the Superior Court of the City of New York, the Superior Court of Buffalo and the City of Brooklyn, and such additional jurisdiction as may be conferred by the Legislature. It shall have power to appoint and remove a reporter. The Justices of the Appellate Division in each department shall have power to fix the times and places for holding Special Terms therein, and to assign the Justices in the departments to hold such term; or to make rules therefor. Const. 1846, art. VI, §§ 7 and 28, added in 1882, amended in 1899 and 1905. § 3. Judge or justice not to sit in review; testimony in equity cases. No Judge or Justice shall sit in the Appellate Division or in the Court of Appeals in review of a decision made by him or by any court of which he was at the time a sitting member. The testimony in equity cases shall be taken in like manner as in cases at law; and, except as herein otherwise provided, the Legislature shall have the same power to alter and regulate the jurisdiction and proceedings in law and in equity that it has heretofore exercised. Const. 1846, art. VI, § 8. § 4. Terms of office; vacancies, how filled. The official terms of the Justices of the Supreme Court shall be fourteen years from and including the first day of January next after their election. When a vacancy shall occur otherwise than by expiration of term in the office of Justice of the Supreme Court the same shall be filled for a full term, at the next general election, happening not less than three months after such vacancy occurs; and, until the vacancy shall be so filled, the Governor by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, if the Senate |