High Court orders Levin to justify his refusal to make key judicial appointments

The High Court of Justice issues a conditional order instructing Justice Minister Yariv Levin to justify his refusal to make much-needed judicial appointments, which can only be made with the agreement of the minister and the Supreme Court President.

The decision follows a hearing today on petitions requesting that the court order Levin to cooperate with Supreme Court President Isaac Amit in order to make the appointments, and alleging that Levin’s reasons for not doing so are not professional, lack a factual basis, and violate his obligations as minister to serve the public.

The court order specifies that Levin must justify in particular his refusal to appoint two district court presidents as well as some deputy district court presidents; associate judges to help alleviate the courts’ case burden; court registrars; and judges to parole boards.

The court gives Levin until March 15 to file his response to the conditional order, and says that a hearing will be held in the first half of April.

During today’s hearing, the justices repeatedly contradicted arguments made by the attorney representing Levin, Yoram Sheftel, citing a 1966 High Court ruling that determined that a minister is obligated to exercise his authority when there is a crisis within the administration in question, and a ruling from 2019 directly contradicting Levin’s argument that since he has not signed off on Amit’s appointment as president his appointment does not stand, and there is no one for Levin to cooperate with in making the necessary appointments.

“Formal law is what determines. Precedent from the High Court is what determines. Everything else is nonsense in the air, it has no value,” said Justice Alex Stein of Sheftel’s arguments.