AG wont defend reasonableness law at High Court, allows Levin to get outside counsel

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells Justice Minister Yariv Levin she won’t defend the reasonableness law in a High Court hearing and says the government can employ outside counsel.

Baharav-Miara’s decision comes over disagreements between her and the government over the law and she plans to recommend that the court overturn the legislation, which she says is “not legal,” Hebrew media reports.

“The AG’s decision is based on the fact that this is an exceptional event, in view of the fact that the petitions deal with precedent-setting and particularly sensitive constitutional issues,” she writes.

The legislation, an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, prohibits all courts, including the Supreme Court, from using the judicial yardstick of “reasonableness” to review and potentially reverse government and ministerial decisions. It is the first law passed, and so far the only one, out of the government’s far-reaching judicial overhaul plan.

The coalition argues it is critical to restrain what it sees as an overly activist court interfering in government decisions, while opponents argue the reasonableness standard is a key tool for protecting certain rights and the independence of law enforcement officials.

A hearing on the law will be held in the High Court of Justice on September 12 with a panel unprecedented in size that will comprise all 15 Supreme Court justices. Last week, the High Court issued a procedural injunction against the law,  requiring the government to explain why the petitions against it should not be struck down by the court.

Nullifying the quasi-constitutional Basic Law would be an unprecedented exercise of judicial review over the Knesset’s constituent authority. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to say whether his government would abide by such a ruling.