Justice Minister Levin considers reviving law to change Judicial Selection Committee

After the recent Supreme Court order requiring Justice Minister Yariv Levin to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to elect a president to the Supreme Court, it is believed that if Levin does convene the committee to select a president, he does not intend to cooperate with the president who will be elected. 

“I cannot work with a president who is illegally appointed by his colleagues and who is illegitimate in the eyes of a majority of the public,” Levin said after the court ruling was delivered to him. 

A report in Israel Hayom claimed that, for Levin, “any cooperation he has with the president of the Supreme Court will be done only by court order.” 

If true, the implications of this failure to cooperate are fairly significant. There are a series of appointments to be made that require the cooperation of the Supreme Court president and the justice minister. If Levin refuses to cooperate, these appointments will remain unfilled. 

However, a report in the Times of Israel indicated that Levin is considering a potential legislative solution to the problem of appointing the next president to the court. 

Levin aims to appoint a more conservative justice to the presidency but has been blocked by the principle of seniority, which dictates that the most senior justice is selected for the role. Currently, this would result in the appointment of Justice Yitzhak (Isaac) Amit, a liberal-leaning judge.

In addition, the existing system for selecting a new president requires only a simple majority of committee members (5 out of 9), which means the liberal majority committee usually appoints liberal-leaning justices. 

To change this, Levin is reportedly considering pushing legislation to change the required majority from 5 to 7, which would give the three coalition representatives the ability to block an appointment they don't agree with. 

Another option that Levin is considering, according to the Times of Israel report, is reintroducing a bill to change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee which the coalition first brought in March 2023. That bill led to the judicial reform protests, which caused disagreements, even within the coalition. It was eventually withdrawn as the coalition sought to first pass other legislation, including the Reasonableness Standard Law that limits the High Court’s ability to declare a law or government action as “unreasonable.” 

Levin has refused to convene the Judicial Selection Committee for more than one year, since the height of the judicial reform controversy last summer. However, following the mandatory retirement of former Supreme Court President Esther Hayut last October, Levin’s refusal has left the court without a permanent president, meaning that new High Court justices can also not be appointed.

Acting Court President Uzi Vogelman, who will retire in October, said Levin is harming “the proper functioning of the judicial system, civil service and the separation of powers.” 

Levin also called for the renewal of judicial reform legislation as recently as last month.