The Ongoing Battle: MK Rothman Demands ….

….. Hayut be disqualified from hearing Reasonableness Law petitions

Knesset Constitution Committee chairman writes that Supreme Court president's anti-judicial reform speech proves her bias in case. 

Knesset Constitution Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman submitted a request today (Monday) to disqualify Supreme Court President Ester Hayut from hearing the petitions against the Reasonableness Standard Law.

Rothman wrote that Justice Hayut's speech in January in which she strongly criticized the government's planned judicial reforms constitutes sufficient basis for concern that she cannot be trusted to rule on the issue in an unbiased manner.

"Anyone who reads the speech in its entirety will come to the clear conclusion that the opinion of the honorable Supreme Court president, Esther Hayut, is completely 'locked in,'" Rothman said.

In her January speech, Hayut claimed that the judicial reforms constitute "an unbridled attack on the judicial system as if it were an enemy that must be attacked and subdued,” and "a plan to crush the justice system. It is designed to deal a fatal blow to the independence of the judiciary and silence it.”

"The amendment locks the gates of the courts to any person or group who are harmed by the fact that the government or one of its ministers acted against them in an extremely unreasonable manner, in any context," she wrote in her response.

She added that "in light of the serious impact of the amendment on the public and its serious consequences for the separation of powers, the rule of law, and the rights of the individual, this is an exceptional situation in which the amendments seriously damage the foundations of the democratic regime.”

The Reasonableness Standard law, which was passed on June 24, is an amendment to Israel's quasi-constitutional Basic Laws which reduces the Supreme Court's ability to strike down government actions based on the subjective view that such actions are "unreasonable" rather than established legal or constitutional standards.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/376516