Judicial reform: Judicial review, override clause passes committee first reading vote

The legal reform bill on judicial review and the override clause passed its reading in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee during its Wednesday morning session.

While the bill passed with nine committee members in favor, the opposition had decided to boycott the vote.

“Knesset members won’t vote in this forced debate,” said Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich.

“You are enacting a silencing dictatorship and won’t let MKs have their voices heard,” said Hadash MK Ofer Cassif.

Opposition committee members attempted to voice objections during the vote’s organization. Several members of Knesset including Labor’s Gilad Kariv and Yesh Atid’s Segalovich, Elazar Stern, Meir Cohen, Orna Barbivai and Yorai Lahav-Hertzano were removed from the room over the course of the session by chairman Simcha Rothman for what he deemed as them interfering with the proceedings.

In response to each faction receiving five minutes to speak, Labor leader Merav Michaeli said that the right for MKs to speak was a basic right.

“It’s the duty of every MK to come and voice their opinion in the committee, certainly about such significant, dramatic and controversial legislation,” she said. “To take away this right from an individual and give it to a faction is an unacceptable injury. The way you complain about the attorney-general to the committee and usurp the basic rights of the MKs shows your lack of good faith.”

What is in the judicial reform bill?

The bill, an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, changes the conditions for judicial review, the ability of the High Court of Justice to strike down a law it decides is in contradiction with Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws. Judicial review of regular legislation would be limited to conditions in which 80% of an extended bench of justices (12 out of 15) unanimously agreed in the power’s use.

A previous set of judicial reform bills, sent back from the Knesset plenum after an affirming vote for further discussion, barred the judicial review or indirect validation by the court of Basic Laws.

The bill approved in Wednesday’s vote also contained provisions for an override clause. The Knesset would be able to overrule the invalidation of legislation with a simple majority of 61 votes. Further, the Knesset would be able to preemptively immunize a law from judicial review in a similar process. The protection of the override bill would expire a year after the dissolution of the Knesset that implemented it.

Connected items of legislation, which are also amendments to the Basic Laws, were also discussed in the special committee for Basic Law: Government Amendments.

The committee’s inaugural session discussed an amendment to alter eligibility for appointment to ministerial positions. Widely known as “Deri Law 2,” it comes after another piece of legislation was passed to allow Shas Chairman Arye Deri to serve as a minister despite his prison sentences. The High Court of Justice found his appointment unreasonable due to his extensive criminal past, and ordered Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remove him from his posts.

Coalition members argued in the Wednesday session that the High Court shouldn’t interfere with appointments approved by the public and Knesset.

Former justice minister Prof. Daniel Friedman said that “the judicial system should not interfere in government appointments – the control should be public. It is a public matter not a matter of another system.”

Opposition members decried the legislation in colorful terms, with Yesh Atid MK Moshe Yutpaz comparing the move to that of Roman Emperor Caligula selecting his horse as consul.

“This law abolishes every moral norm: It allows every snitch, every criminal, every horse in the State of Israel to be appointed a minister,” he said.

Discussions in the committee were set to continue on Thursday.