Government backs bill to remove High Court chief’s power to assign cases to justices

Continuation of efforts to restrain the judiciary on the part of the coalition ‘significantly affects the democratic nature’ of Israel, says AG’s office

Nine-justice panel at the High Court of Justice hearing petitions demanding the immediate conscription of ultra-Orthodox young men to the Israel Defense Forces, June 2, 2024 (Screen grab)
Nine-justice panel at the High Court of Justice hearing petitions demanding the immediate conscription of ultra-Orthodox young men to the Israel Defense Forces, June 2, 2024 (Screen grab)

In an apparent continuation of the government’s efforts to restrict the power of the judiciary, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday backed a bill that seeks to remove the authority of the Supreme Court president to determine which justices hear each case. Instead, judicial panels would be determined by an automated computerized system.

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman argued in the explanatory notes to his bill that the legislation is necessary since the outcome of an appeal or petition can ostensibly be predetermined by the court president by choosing which judges shear it.

Rothman is one of the key architects of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda.

Under the current system, the overwhelming majority of judicial panels established for Supreme Court appeals and High Court petitions are already formed by random assignment via computer through the court secretariat, although the Supreme Court president can, and on occasion does, choose the individual judges for cases of particular importance.

The bill, if passed, would amend the Courts Law of 1984 and remove the clause authorizing the Supreme Court president to determine which judges preside over which cases.

Instead, the law would state that the composition of judicial panels will be determined in “a computerized way without human involvement.”

Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman chairs a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, May 5, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

According to the Haaretz daily, the Courts Administration came out against the legislation, warning that the change it seeks to implement would hinder the efficiency of the judicial system.

It also quoted Courts Administration legal adviser Barak Leizer as warning that the legislation would “harm the status of the Supreme Court and its head and public trust in the judiciary.”

During Sunday’s meeting of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, representatives of the Attorney General’s Office also objected to the bill, the Ynet news site reported.

The legislation “joins a series of [other] legislative initiatives that weaken the judicial system and undermine public confidence in it,” they stated, arguing that the bill undermined the court president’s “central role in managing the judicial system.”

“The cumulative weight of these legislative moves leads to severe damage to the mechanisms of restraint and balance of governmental power and significantly affects the democratic nature of the State of Israel,” the Attorney General’s Office asserted.

In response, Justice Minister Yariv Levin charged that his authority over the Judicial Selection Committee had been undermined and said, “If it is permissible to take away powers that the justice minister has had for decades, then it is permissible to take away powers from the president of the Supreme Court as well,” Ynet reported.

Court president Isaac Amit was sworn into office in February despite Levin’s intense opposition.

Incoming Supreme Court President Isaac Amit at his inauguration ceremony at the President’s Residence in jerusalem, February 13, 2025. (Yonatan SIndel/FLASH90)

Levin fought the appointment of Amit every step of the way for over a year. After being repeatedly ordered by the Supreme Court, sitting in its capacity as the High Court of Justice, to finally appoint a new president, Levin boycotted the vote itself and has vowed to boycott Amit as head of the court as well.

According to Guy Lurie, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute’s legal department, there are only a handful of cases every year where the Supreme Court president decides on who will sit on a judicial panel.

Such cases often involve matters of significant importance to the public, but even in such situations, the Supreme Court president does not handpick judges for the panel but rather decides that the most senior judges on the court will sit on the panel.

In the recent hearings over petitions against the government’s decision to fire Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, Isaac Amit went this route, so that the three most senior judges on the court — himself, Deputy Supreme Court President Noam Sohlberg, and Judge Daphne Barak-Erez — heard the petitions.

Justice Minister Yariv Levin attends a meeting of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, January 21, 2025. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

In other circumstances, the Supreme Court president can also assign judges to a case based on the workloads facing the different judges at the time the case is brought to the court.

Lurie contended that the president’s ability to have the most senior justices sit on crucial cases and his ability to manage justices’ workload were important tools in managing the functioning of the top court.

The government’s advancement of Rothman’s bill comes less than two months after lawmakers passed a law greatly increasing political power and influence over the judicial appointments process in Israel.

That measure, which changes the composition of the committee that selects judges, passed almost completely unopposed after the opposition boycotted the final vote.

The measure will only come into effect in the next Knesset, meaning after Israel’s next general elections, which are scheduled for October 2026.

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