High Court unanimously orders Levin to convene panel to appoint Supreme Court president

The High Court of Justice rules unanimously that Justice Minister Yariv Levin must convene the Judicial Selection Committee and elect a new president for the Supreme Court, thwarting a key strategy of Levin’s to exert greater governmental control over the judiciary.

The court orders Levin to publish the names of the candidates for the position in the official state gazette within 14 days, and convene the committee, which he chairs, “shortly after” the mandatory 45-day waiting period after the candidates’ names are published.

The decision means that Justice Isaac Amit, a liberal, will almost certainly be elected the next president of the court since he is the most senior justice on the court and the liberal camp on the court has a majority on the nine-member committee. The appointment of a president only requires a simple majority.

The timing of the decision means that current Acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman will retire before a new president is chosen. Vogelman will hit the age of retirement on October 6, and Amit as the next most senior justice on the court will become acting president until a vote is held in the Judicial Selection Committee some time in November, according to the High Court’s schedule.

Presiding justices Yael Wilner, Ofer Grosskopf, and Alex Stein decline, however, to order Levin to hold votes on the appointment of new justices to the Supreme Court as the petitioning organization, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, had also sought.

Levin had sought to have highly conservative justice Yosef Elron appointed president of the court in contravention of the system of seniority that has been in place since the court was established, but was strongly opposed by Acting Supreme Court President Uzi Vogelman. Those opposed to scrapping the seniority system expressed concern that it would politicize Israel’s top court.