Sa’ar says judicial overhaul proposal designed to end veto on 2 hardline Supreme Court picks

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that his joint proposal with Justice Minister Yariv Levin to change the composition and functioning of the Judicial Selection Committee is designed to overcome the current situation, in which Levin’s effort to have two hardline conservative academics appointed to the Supreme Court has been blocked.

Speaking in the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Sa’ar contends that the inability of the justice minister to have “one judge out of 15 [who holds] his legal ideology elected to the Supreme Court” is “unreasonable and illogical,” and claims that “a broad community” feels it is not represented on Israel’s top court.

When Democrats MK Efrat Rayten pointed out that Sa’ar himself had succeeded in increasing diversity on the Supreme Court when he was justice minister, Sa’ar replied, “This law is about how Bakshi and Biton were blocked,” adding, “If there had been compromise [on the Judicial Selection Committee] we wouldn’t have this legislation today.”

Levin has sought to have either Dr. Raphael Bitton, a senior lecturer at Sapir College School of Law, or Dr. Aviad Bakshi, head of the legal department of the conservative Kohelet Policy Forum, elected to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court justices on the panel objected, reportedly on the grounds that the two academics are unqualified for the post.

Levin has cited both Bitton and Bakshi as sources of inspiration for his original judicial overhaul agenda, which would have given the government almost complete control over judicial appointments and almost entirely eliminated the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review.

Rayten writes on Twitter following Sa’ar’s comment “The cat is out of the bag, [Sa’ar and Levin’s] ‘compromise’ agreement was designed to solve the appointment of Bakshi and Bitton.”