In the judgment, it was determined that Minister Levin should publish in the records the list of candidates for the position of Chief Justice within 14 days and convene the committee for judge electing. However, the judges ruled that there is no legal grounds at this time to require the minister to convene the committee for the appointment of two additional judges to the Supreme Court.
Justice Yael Vilner, who wrote the majority of the opinion, noted that “it is difficult to appoint that the appointment of the president of the Supreme Court, who also serves as the head of the judiciary and is one of the ‘symbols of government’ of the State of Israel, will be thwarted for more than a year only because the minister does not accept the legislative selection mechanism established in this matter.”
Judge Wilner added: “At this point in time, there is no alternative to stating that the minister’s said policy is contrary to law. There is no longer the power of broad consensus to allow the minister to refrain from fulfilling his duty to convene the committee for the election of the president of the Supreme Court.”
The current situation, in which the Supreme Court operates without a permanent president, has been going on for nearly a year. Since the retirement of President Esther Hayut in October 2022, Justice Uzi Vogelman has been taking her place.
According to reports, there is a majority in the committee to appoint Judge Yitzhak Amit as the supreme president, according to the seniority system. The appointment of a president requires a regular majority of five out of nine members of the committee.
Minister Levine: There is discretion for the Minister
Minister of Justice Levin argued that he was given discretion as to whether a new president should be appointed and that according to his policy, a president should not be appointed unless a broad consensus is reached in the committee. On the other hand, the Petitioner’s position and the Attorney General’s legal position is that when the office of President is vacated, the Minister is obliged to convene “at the appropriate speed” the Committee for the election of a new President.
At the end of last month, the High Court of Justice called on Minister Levin to convene the committee and allow it to vote, and warned that if he did not do so, a binding verdict would be given at the beginning of September. The judges explained that “at the request of Justice Minister Yariv Levin, we delayed the decision in this case for a significant period, in order to enable him to exhaust efforts to realize his blessed vision of appointing a president and judges to the Supreme Court on the basis of broad agreement among the members of the Judicial Appointment Committee.”
Minister Smotrich: We’ll fix it after the war
The court’s ruling provoked many reactions in the political system. The head of the Bar Association, Adv. Amit Bachar, wrote on his X-account that he “calls on Minister of Justice Levin to act responsibly, to uphold the High Court’s ruling and to convene the committee.”
On the other hand, Finance Minister Smotrich called for calm during the war. “The amendments to the judicial system are essential for a Jewish and democratic Israel and we will return to them immediately after the war.”
