AG tells Levin his disciplinary complaint against Supreme Court chief is baseless and ‘legally invalid’

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells Justice Minister Yariv Levin that his effort to file a disciplinary complaint against Supreme Court President Isaac Amit does not meet the criteria for a justice minister to take such action, and is “legally invalid.”

Levin is preparing to file a disciplinary complaint to the Disciplinary Court for Judges after State Ombudsman for Judges Asher Kula found that Amit had had a conflict of interest in a case in which he made several decisions before handing it off to a panel of three judges, which could have potentially benefited his brother.

Kula did not recommend disciplinary proceedings, however, and he dismissed nine other complaints against Amit, including one in which it was alleged he had violated construction laws in his home, allegations which Kula said had done “a significant injustice” to Amit and his family.

“The clear decision of the ombudsman… shows that there is no basis for advancing a disciplinary process, and does not provide [any] basis for continued clarifications on the disciplinary level. The opposite is true.”

She also states that the authority of the justice minister to file a disciplinary complaint against a judge is extremely limited and must be a case where there is the possibility of “real harm to judicial independence” and “infiltration of political considerations.”

Since there is no factual basis for such concerns in Levin’s complaint against Amit, Baharav-Miara tells the justice minister that it is legally invalid.