Fiercely critical High Court seems poised to annul keystone judicial overhaul law |
The hearing in the High Court of Justice on Sunday, about legislation that will greatly increase political influence over the judicial appointments process, appeared at times more like a roasting of the government’s lawyers than a traditional court proceeding.
Practically every single justice on the 11-member panel lambasted one component or another of the law, with numerous justices using harsh language to describe the measure and painting it in truly dystopian hues.
The law, which will come into effect after the upcoming election, gives politicians on the Judicial Selection Committee an unprecedented veto over lower court appointments, and total control over all Supreme Court appointments. In certain situations, politicians could even handpick a Supreme Court judge without a vote in the committee.
Some justices on the panel were so appalled at the legislation that they appeared to take it almost as a personal insult, pointing out — in response to the argument that the government was “merely” trying to increase political diversity on the court — that their political positions were completely irrelevant to their professional conduct as judges.
The ferocity of the justices’ onslaught against the government representatives left little doubt as to how the court will rule on the highly contentious legislation.
The fact that the law is the centerpiece of the government’s multi-pronged bid to constrain the judiciary’s ability to check executive power will mean that any decision by the court to strike down the law will be highly contentious.
Compounding the potential controversy is the fact that the law was passed as an amendment to a quasi-constitutional Basic Law, namely Basic Law: The Judiciary. The government, the Israeli right, and advocates of judicial restraint argue that the court derives its very authority for judicial review from Basic Laws, and therefore has no authority to review them, or amendments to them.
But out of the 11 justices hearing the petitions on Sunday, five have already crossed that bridge when they ruled to strike down the government’s reasonableness limitation law in 2024, which was also an amendment to Basic Law: The........