Conservative on Supreme Court named to key panel that selects judges
Noam Sohlberg tapped as third justice to serve on Judicial Selection Committee, which Yariv Levin has refused to convene as he seeks greater control over it as part of overhaul
Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg was appointed Wednesday to the Judicial Selection Committee, a panel responsible for appointing new judges, in place of Supreme Court Justice Uzi Vogelman whose three-year tenure on the committee expired last week.
Sohlberg is a conservative whose positions have been cited approvingly by the current coalition, although he has also issued rulings against the government in controversial cases, most recently joining a unanimous decision ruling against the coalition’s so-called Tiberias law last week.
The appointment of two representatives from the Supreme Court to the Judicial Selection Committee is usually done by seniority, and the Supreme Court president joins the two other representatives of the court on the panel.
Supreme Court President Esther Hayut informed Justice Minister Yariv Levin of the decision to appoint Sohlberg hours before the move was announced.
Levin, who chairs the committee, has so far refused to convene the panel, seemingly because he will be unable to have full control of judicial appointments due to the composition of the current panel.
The coalition can count on the votes of Levin, a second government minister yet to be named, and coalition MK Yitzhak Kroizer of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party.
Opposition MK Karine Elharrar of Yesh Atid, the two representatives of the Israel Bar Association (IBA), and Supreme Court President Esther Hayut together with Supreme Court Justice Isaac Amit are all likely to support liberal candidates for the judiciary.
Five votes are needed to appoint lower court judges and seven votes to appoint judges to the Supreme Court, meaning committee members from the opposition, Supreme Court and IBA could likely outvote the coalition on lower court appointments, if the committee was convened.
Petitions filed against Levin to the High Court demanding he convene the committee are set to be heard on September 7.
The petitions claim that Levin, unable to appoint judges unilaterally, has instead refused to convene the panel altogether, holding up bench appointments nationwide.
Levin, the architect of the government’s judicial overhaul program, has sought greater political control over judicial appointments to rebalance the court, in his words, by placing conservative justices on the bench, after years of alleged progressive activism.
Legislation giving the government almost total control over the selection of judges, arguably the most far-reaching and controversial measure in the judicial overhaul plan, was frozen in March.
In an interview Sunday with Bloomberg, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu indicated he would seek to pass a bill aimed at bringing the appointment of new judges under near-absolute government control by November, then shelve the other proposals that are part of the judicial overhaul. The premier said he would work for a compromise with the opposition on the legislation.
But Hebrew media Monday reported that several lawmakers in Netanyahu’s Likud party have recently indicated they might no longer allow the coalition to bulldoze further judicial overhaul laws through the Knesset
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.