Section 15-2-8. Powers of court generally

   The Supreme Court has authority:

   (1) To exercise appellate jurisdiction, and in no appellate case to hear facts or examine witnesses;

   (2) To hear and determine all cases, civil and criminal, that may come before it; to grant judgments of affirmance or reversal, or any other order, direction, or decree required therein; and, if necessary, to make a final disposition of a case in the manner prescribed elsewhere in this Code;

   (3) To grant any writ necessary to carry out any purpose of its organization or to compel any inferior tribunal or officers thereof to obey its order;

   (4) To appoint its own officers and to commission any person to execute any specific order it may make;

   (5) To establish, amend, and alter its own rules of practice and to regulate the admission of attorneys to the practice of law;

   (6) To punish for contempt by the infliction of a fine as high as $500.00 or imprisonment not exceeding ten days, or both; and

   (7) To exercise such other powers, not contrary to the Constitution of this state, as given to it by law. This paragraph shall not be interpreted to abrogate the inherent power of the court.

Laws 1845, Cobb's 1851 Digest, pp. 450, 452; Code 1863, §§ 211, 4180; Code 1868, §§ 205, 4219; Code 1873, §§ 218, 4284; Code 1882, §§ 218, 4284; Civil Code 1895, § 5498; Penal Code 1895, § 1068; Civil Code 1910, § 6103; Penal Code 1910, § 1095; Code 1933, § 24-3901; Ga. L. 1986, p. 279, § 1; Ga. L. 2003, p. 334, § 1.