§ 4. a. The state shall be divided into four judicial departments. The
first department shall consist of the counties within the first judicial
district of the state. The second department shall consist of the
counties within the second, ninth, tenth and eleventh judicial districts
of the state. The third department shall consist of the counties within
the third, fourth and sixth judicial districts of the state. The fourth
department shall consist of the counties within the fifth, seventh and
eighth judicial districts of the state. Each department shall be bounded
by the lines of judicial districts. Once every ten years the legislature
may alter the boundaries of the judicial departments, but without
changing the number thereof.

b. The appellate divisions of the supreme court are continued, and
shall consist of seven justices of the supreme court in each of the
first and second departments, and five justices in each of the other
departments. In each appellate division, four justices 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.

c. The governor shall designate the presiding justice of each
appellate division, who shall act as such during his or her term of
office and shall be a resident of the department. The other justices of
the appellate divisions shall be designated by the governor, from all
the justices elected to the supreme court, for terms of five years or
the unexpired portions of their respective terms of office, if less than
five years.

d. The justices heretofore designated shall continue to sit in the
appellate divisions until the terms of their respective designations
shall expire. From time to time as the terms of the designations expire,
or vacancies occur, the governor shall make new designations. The
governor may also, on request of any appellate division, make temporary
designations in case of the absence or inability to act of any justice
in such appellate division, for service only during such absence or
inability to act.

e. In case any appellate division shall certify to the governor that
one or more additional justices are needed for the speedy disposition of
the business before it, the governor may designate an additional justice
or additional justices; but when the need for such additional justice or
justices shall no longer exist, the appellate division shall so certify
to the governor, and thereupon service under such designation or
designations shall cease.

f. A majority of the justices designated to sit in any appellate
division shall at all times be residents of the department.

g. 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 department to any other department for hearing
and determination.

h. A justice of the appellate division of the supreme court in any
department may be temporarily designated by the presiding justice of his
or her department to the appellate division in another judicial
department upon agreement by the presiding justices of the appellate
division of the departments concerned.

i. In the event that the disqualification, absence or inability to act
of justices in any appellate division prevents there being a quorum of
justices qualified to hear an appeal, the justices qualified to hear the
appeal may transfer it to the appellate division in another department
for hearing and determination. In the event that the justices in any
appellate division qualified to hear an appeal are equally divided, said
justices may transfer the appeal to the appellate division in another
department for hearing and determination. Each appellate division shall
have power to appoint and remove its clerk.

j. No justice of the appellate division shall, within the department
to which he or she 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, except that the justice may decide
causes or proceedings theretofore submitted, or hear and decide 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 or she 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 judicial district in any other department of the state.

k. The appellate divisions of the supreme court shall have all the
jurisdiction possessed by them on the effective date of this article and
such additional jurisdiction as may be prescribed by law, provided,
however, that the right to appeal to the appellate divisions from a
judgment or order which does not finally determine an action or special
proceeding may be limited or conditioned by law.