Supreme Court Justices Walk Out of Judicial Appointments Committee

Supreme Court Justices Walk Out of Judicial Appointments Committee

(Jerusalem, Sept. 22) The three justices who serve on Israel’s Judicial Selection Committee — Chief Justice Dorrit Beinisch, Justice Edmond Levi and Justice Ayala Procaccia — walked out of the session of the Judicial Appointments Committee scheduled for today. Without the justices the committee lacks a quorum to make appointments. The Committee had been convened by Justice Minister Daniel Friedman to appoint three new justices to the Supreme Court.

The Judicial Selection Committee appoints all judges in Israel, including justices of the Supreme Court. Besides the justices, it includes two representatives of the Israel Bar Association, two cabinet ministers and two Knesset members, one each from the governing coalition and the opposition.

Traditionally, the justices and the Bar Committee members vote as a bloc, giving the justices an automatic majority. A new law, however, passed earlier this month, requires a supermajority of seven to appoint Supreme Court justices, giving the government for the first time the power to block appointments and force the justices to bargain to secure appointments for their preferred candidates.

The committee met at a time when the Supreme Court is understaffed (12 justices) and overwhelmed with a huge caseload. Three new justices are urgently needed to take up some of the caseload and hasten the movement of dockets through the Court.

Despite this need, the three justices preferred to block the committee’s action. Citing a Supreme Court case from 2005, they declared that a transitional government could not appoint judges. Prime Minister Olmert had resigned the previous evening, turning his government into a transitional government until a new government is appointed.

The justices’ move came as a surprise. Attorney General Mazuz was summoned to the meeting, where he gave his opinion that the Judicial Selection Committee, only two of whose members are Cabinet ministers, may function normally even during a transitional government. However the justices rejected his opinion.

Though it is generally agreed that the appointment of new justices is urgent, the justices currently serving on the Judicial Selection Committee may have felt that it was to their tactical advantage to wait before appointing new justices. In a new government, Daniel Friedmann may no longer be Justice Minister. Friedmann is an advocate of broadening the ideological views represented on the bench and of curbing the Supreme Court’s prerogatives, and his tenure has been characterized by tension and conflict with the Supreme Court and especially with its Chief Justice, Dorrit Beinisch.