Should the current coalition form the next government after the upcoming election, it will consider establishing a constitutional court above the Supreme Court, Religious Zionism MK Simcha Rothman told The Times of Israel.

Such a court, which could be packed by the government, would be given the power to review challenges to legislation, stripping the current top court of the ability to strike down laws deemed incompatible with the quasi-constitutional Basic Laws, as it has done to several measures passed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

Rothman, who was one of the architects of the government’s judicial overhaul agenda, said such a move would be needed to address what he described as a Supreme Court “that simply doesn’t obey the law.”

While expressing hope that Supreme Court justices would “moderate themselves” to avoid so drastic a step, “if there is no choice it might be that we need to do it,” Rothman said Wednesday.

Rothman, who chairs the powerful Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee in which the government’s judicial overhaul legislation was prepared, made his comments in reference to multiple rulings by the Supreme Court, in its capacity as High Court, against the current government, including over Knesset legislation and government decisions and actions.

These rulings have led the government to denounce the court as ignoring the will of the Knesset, and in one instance to issue an unprecedented statement saying it did not view a High Court ruling as valid and would not abide by its terms.

Should the government create the court, it would also control its makeup and mandate, augmenting the coalition’s attempts to overhaul the judiciary, which critics say would remove vital checks on government power.

Legislation passed by the current government has given politicians a dominant voice in the appointment of judges in Israel; should parties in the current coalition return to power, they would in all likelihood similarly seek the upper hand in appointing judges to the new constitutional court.

Legislation advanced by the coalition, but which stopped short of final approval, sought to severely restrict the High Court’s power to conduct judicial review over Knesset legislation altogether, indicating that the new court would likely also have a restricted mandate.

Rothman did not detail what types of powers a constitutional court would have,........

© The Times of Israel