Article IV, § 12 — Composition of Supreme Court; designation of temporary Justices; quorum; opening and adjourning court

A quorum of the Supreme Court shall consist of not less than 3 Justices. The entire Court shall sit in any criminal case in which the accused has been sentenced to death and in such other civil and criminal cases as the Court, by rule, or the General Assembly, upon the concurrence of two-thirds of all the members elected to each house, shall determine. In case of a lack of quorum by reason of vacancies in their number, incapacity, or disqualification to sit by reason of interest, or to constitute a 3-member panel of the Court, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, or in case of the Chief Justice’s absence from this State, disqualification, incapacity, or if there be a vacancy in that office, the next qualified and available Justice, who by seniority is next in rank to the Chief Justice, shall have the power to designate judges from among the judges of the constitutional courts to sit in the Supreme Court temporarily to satisfy the number of Justices required by law. It shall be the duty of the judges of the constitutional courts so designated to sit accordingly. No judge shall be so designated to sit in the Supreme Court in any case in which the judge sat below. Any 1 of the Justices of the Supreme Court may open and adjourn court.