High Court orders Levin to justify refusal to appoint new judges

The High Court of Justice issues a conditional order requiring Justice Minister Yariv Levin to justify his decision not to convene the Judicial Selection Committee to vote on candidates to fill vacancies, which currently exist on every court.

In a hearing last week on petitions against Levin’s decision not to convene the committee, which the High Court justices were sharply critical of his behavior, accusing him of hindering law enforcement and asserting that his decision was leading to murder defendants and other violent criminals walking free.

The court orders Levin to file his full response to the petitions by March 8, and says a hearing will be held in the second half of March.

“Levin has turned himself, on his own initiative and contrary to the law, into a veto player over judicial appointments – a power that is not granted to him by law,” says the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, one of the petitioning organizations, adding that the justice minister “must not be allowed to continue holding the committee hostage for political purposes.”

There are 44 open positions across the court system, including four on the Supreme Court, but Levin has refused to convene the Judicial Selection Committee since January last year.

Similar petitions against Levin’s refusal to convene the committee — which he chairs — in order to vote on a new Supreme Court president in 2024 resulted in the High Court ordering Levin to convene the panel and hold a vote. He complied although he absented himself from the vote.

Levin has boycotted the elected Supreme Court President Isaac Amit ever since.