Every part of the proposed reform is intended to redress a critical issue, including the override. Back in 2003 a public committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge considered how to mainstream Haredi youth into the job market. It came to the conclusion that Israeli society would be better off letting haredi youth work than refusin…
Every part of the proposed reform is intended to redress a critical issue, including the override. Back in 2003 a public committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge considered how to mainstream Haredi youth into the job market. It came to the conclusion that Israeli society would be better off letting haredi youth work than refusing to let them work unless they go to the army first. That report became a law, approved by the Knesset 56-41.
I hate that decision and that law. I think it's wrong and wrong-headed. But the Knesset thought it was a better solution than doing nothing. The Supreme Court disagreed and, using incredible (non-credible) legal calisthenics, struck down the law on the grounds that it violated the "human dignity" of draftees. And here we are, twenty years later, with no solution.
The override clause is a 5th-rate solution to the court's inability to recognize that messy political compromises are nevertheless a better solution to messy social problems than purism dispensed by a bench of philosopher-kings. The clause is truly dangerous. We have to hope that at some point we can convince haredim that judicial appointments by the majority + the need for a supermajority to strike down laws are sufficient to create a court willing to acknowledge that Knesset's authority to legislate.
As soon as the President announced he was willing to broker a compromise the coalition indicated it was willing, and in fact negotiations have been going on non-stop. Read the news.
Every part of the proposed reform is intended to redress a critical issue, including the override. Back in 2003 a public committee headed by a retired Supreme Court judge considered how to mainstream Haredi youth into the job market. It came to the conclusion that Israeli society would be better off letting haredi youth work than refusing to let them work unless they go to the army first. That report became a law, approved by the Knesset 56-41.
I hate that decision and that law. I think it's wrong and wrong-headed. But the Knesset thought it was a better solution than doing nothing. The Supreme Court disagreed and, using incredible (non-credible) legal calisthenics, struck down the law on the grounds that it violated the "human dignity" of draftees. And here we are, twenty years later, with no solution.
The override clause is a 5th-rate solution to the court's inability to recognize that messy political compromises are nevertheless a better solution to messy social problems than purism dispensed by a bench of philosopher-kings. The clause is truly dangerous. We have to hope that at some point we can convince haredim that judicial appointments by the majority + the need for a supermajority to strike down laws are sufficient to create a court willing to acknowledge that Knesset's authority to legislate.
As soon as the President announced he was willing to broker a compromise the coalition indicated it was willing, and in fact negotiations have been going on non-stop. Read the news.