Reasonableness hearing ends after 13.5 hours of arguments

After 13.5 hours, the fateful High Court hearing on the reasonableness law comes to a close.

Before it does, government lawyer Ilan Bombach reprises his morning appearance, telling the court that the government isn’t about to start working changes into the Declaration of Independence, after judges indicated it could hold the status of a foundational statutory charter in some regards.

“But that doesn’t turn it into a legal text. It’s unthinkable to take a document on sovereignty and use it to negate future sovereignty,” he chides the justices.

Justice Isaac Amit tells Bombach he isn’t really buying what the government is doing.

“The feeling I get is as if I heard ‘we know the law is bad, and now we’ll suggest a few tricks, call it what you want and we can use outside considerations [normally deemed unreasonable],” he says. “Why all the run-around?”

As the hearing comes to a close, Chief Justice Esther Hayut tells the parties they have 21 days to submit any addenda to their arguments, but the clearly tired and nearly-retired justice caps those arguments at 10 pages.

Bombach, apparently not out of words, asks for more space, and gets an extra five pages plus a gentle rebuke after already taking up 2.5 of the hearing’s hours, according to Hayut.