N.Y. Const. art. VI, § 6: Judicial districts; composition; supreme court continued; justices of supreme court

§ 6. a. The state shall be divided into eleven judicial districts. The

first judicial district shall consist of the counties of Bronx and New

York. The second judicial district shall consist of the counties of

Kings and Richmond. The third judicial district shall consist of the

counties of Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan,

and Ulster. The fourth judicial district shall consist of the counties

of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, St. Lawrence,

Saratoga, Schenectady, Warren and Washington. The fifth judicial

district shall consist of the counties of Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis,

Oneida, Onondaga, and Oswego. The sixth judicial district shall consist

of the counties of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Cortland, Delaware,

Madison, Otsego, Schuyler, Tioga and Tompkins. The seventh judicial

district shall consist of the counties of Cayuga, Livingston, Monroe,

Ontario, Seneca, Steuben, Wayne and Yates. The eighth judicial district

shall consist of the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua,

Erie, Genesee, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming. The ninth judicial district

shall consist of the counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland and

Westchester. The tenth judicial district shall consist of the counties

of Nassau and Suffolk. The eleventh judicial district shall consist of

the county of Queens.

b. Once every ten years the legislature may increase or decrease the

number of judicial districts or alter the composition of judicial

districts and thereupon re-apportion the justices to be thereafter

elected in the judicial districts so altered. Each judicial district

shall be bounded by county lines.

c. The justices of the supreme court shall be chosen by the electors

of the judicial district in which they are to serve. The terms of

justices of the supreme court shall be fourteen years from and including

the first day of January next after their election.

d. The supreme court is continued. It shall consist of the number of

justices of the supreme court including the justices designated to the

appellate divisions of the supreme court, judges of the county court of

the counties of Bronx, Kings, Queens and Richmond and judges of the

court of general sessions of the county of New York authorized by law on

the thirty-first day of August next after the approval and ratification

of this amendment by the people, all of whom shall be justices of the

supreme court for the remainder of their terms. The legislature may

increase the number of justices of the supreme court in any judicial

district, except that the number in any district shall not be increased

to exceed one justice for fifty thousand, or fraction over thirty

thousand, of the population thereof as shown by the last federal census

or state enumeration. The legislature may decrease the number of

justices of the supreme court in any judicial district, except that the

number in any district shall not be less than the number of justices of

the supreme court authorized by law on the effective date of this

article.

e. The clerks of the several counties shall be clerks of the supreme

court, with such powers and duties as shall be prescribed by law.