Levin to convene judicial selection panel next week — again without vote on Supreme Court chief

Justice Minister Yariv Levin calls a meeting of the Judicial Selection Committee for December 12, but its agenda doesn’t include a vote on the next Supreme Court chief justice.

This will be the second meeting of the panel since a High Court of Justice ruling that said Levin must convene it to select a president for the top court after he avoided doing so for over a year, aiming to avoid tapping Justice Isaac Amit for the job, whom the minister views as adversarial.

Next week’s meeting will include a discussion of Levin’s bid to have the committee’s meetings livestreamed, as well as a discussion of the method by which the next chief justice and their deputy will be selected.

On that same day, the High Court is set to discuss a petition seeking to have it declare Levin in contempt of court for failing to adhere to its ruling.

Levin, a hawkish Likud party member who led the government’s stalled judicial overhaul effort, is looking to steer the court in a more conservative direction and prevent the election of liberal justice Amit, who stands to win the majority on the committee.

Amit is currently the acting president, and is expected to become the permanent president under the longstanding seniority system, which Levin seeks to upend, by which the justice with the most years on the court is elected the next president.

Levin argues that the seniority system is merely a tradition and not legally binding. He prefers conservative Justice Yosef Elron for the position, and has spent the past 13 months trying to prevent Amit’s selection.

Zev Stub contributed to this report.