Lawyer defending reasonableness law: ‘Unthinkable that court will overturn Basic Law’

A lawyer chosen by Justice Minister Yariv Levin to represent the government during a High Court hearing of appeals against the reasonableness law says it is “unthinkable” that the court will strike it down.

“The possibility that the High Court will strike down a Basic Law is unthinkable. They completely don’t have the authority,” Ilan Bombach tells Channel 12 news.

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.

Bombach, who has represented the Likud party in the past and was vice chairman of the Election Committee in 2022, is chosen as outside counsel after Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara tells Levin she won’t defend the law.

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.