Israeli Supreme Court

What does – or should – pain religious Jews is that other Jews feel no connection to the performance of mitzvot, not that they are witness to that fact.

...for Barak the “people” who count are not the citizens of the country...

. It is an even greater cause for rejoicing that Barak's successor lacks his abilities and manipulative skills, and, as a consequence the battle has begun to turn on the ground as well.

Woe to the democracy in which being a member of the elected branches of government is the ultimate bar to being entrusted with any decision-making authority.

Turnabout – A Purim Story for Our Time

NOW BARAK IS RETIRED, five vacancies remain to be filled on the Court, and Professor Daniel Friedmann, one of the Israel's leading jurists (and an Israel Prize Winner), who has emerged as one of the fiercest critics of just about every aspect of the gover

The Israel Democracy Institute's consensus constitution might be better characterized, as we shall see, as the constitution for the preservation of the reign of Aharon Barak, the retiring President of the Israeli Supreme Court.

After Barak's slated retirement next year, Gavison would likely emerge as the most formidable thinker on the Court, and she might well attract to her banner a number of the more technocratic justices.

And as governing elders, their legal expertise is no more relevant than would be the psychometric scores of the national soccer team.

...Their legal background is nearly as irrelevant to their ability to govern as psychometric scores would be to the selection of the national soccer team.

A judicial system that tends to produce an ideologically homogeneous Court, whose very homogeneity reinforces a particular ideological bent, is the greatest threat to the Israeli Supreme Court's legitimacy.

To perpetuate judicial rule of "the enlightened public," whose values he has made the guiding star for Israeli judges, Barak has no choice but to oppose Gavison -- no matter how high the price.

Why has such a wily politician as Aharon Barak chosen to go to the trenches to oppose the Gavison appointment?

But for sheer determination to torment a religious organization and arouse religious hatred, IRAC's efforts to prevent the building of religious center by Rabbi Tzvi Schwartz of Rechovot cannot be topped.

Joubran doesn't get it

With its inexorable march towards full recognition of any "conversion", the Supreme Court drives yet another nail in the dream of David Ben-Gurion that Jewish identity would provide the glue to bind together Jews from over 100 countries.

It never occurred to the Supreme Court that in a healthy democracy it is the citizenry that is the ultimate judge of the behavior of public officials.

BeTzedek proves that there is a crucial role for a professional organization to supplement the traditional forms of askonus in the political sphere.

Just when I thought that there was nothing the Israeli Supreme Court could do to surprise me, it found a way.

Brutal attempts to force changes in haredi education or to expedite natural changes already taking place will encounter stiff resistance, and only reinforce the community's most conservative impulses.

The Court reversed nearly fifty years of state funding for yeshivos ketanos without the parties most directly affected – i.e., chareidi yeshivos ketanos and their students – even being represented before the Court.

Once again the Court has set itself up as the arbiter of the moral values, or lack thereof, of our society. It is ill-suited for that role.

The Court felt free to substitute its own judgment concerning the proper location of the security fence for that of the defense establishment.

Mazuz deserves our gratitude for reminding us that in a democracy the role of the legal system is to enforce norms enacted by the Knesset, and to leave the rest to irate voters.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Meni Mazuz for reminding us that in a democracy the legal system is supposed to enforce legal norms enacted by the Knesset and leave for irate voters the enforcement of a higher morality on public officials

Israeli Attorney-General Meni Mazuz set off an earthquake in the Israeli law enforcement system last week.

Court President Aharon Barak acknowledged the repugnance that Jews have always shown toward the consumption of pork.But he recognizes no legitimate reason for a democratically elected municipal council to ban the sale of pork from the public square.

Regev and Barak are counting on the fact that the current Interior Minister, Shinui’s Avraham Poraz, who has always held aloft the banner of religious pluralism, will raise no objections to the validity of heterodox conversions performed eit

The shoving of shoddy goods like Arbel down the throat of the Israeli public has done more to undermine the credibility of the Supreme Court than a hundred critics ever could.

Court President Barak and Justice Minister Lapid have done more to undermine the prestige of the Court than a hundred critics of the Court could ever have done

Welcome retirements

Judicial activism and the chareidim

When Israel’s elites themselves evince so little appreciation of the implications of sovereignty, we can hardly expect other nations to be more solicitous of our sovereignty.

Not being prophets, we can never know with certainty the answer to these questions. But before we act, we must at least understand the issues.

Rubinstein’s J’accuse

Why does the Israeli government insist on maintaining a monopoly over radio news?

A citizen above suspicion

The justified sympathy for society’s unfortunates should not lead us to constitutional aberrations.

A stealth constitution

The current judicial selection process has resulted in a Court that resembles, in Professor Ruth Gavison’s words, ``a closed sect – a sect that is too uniform and which effectively perpetuates itself.’’

Court Under Fire

If being heard, means a photo-op in the New York Times, then WoW has been denied. But if it means being heard by the One Above, even the most softly whispered prayer will be heard.

The widespread perception of bias in the criminal justice system undermines the basic trust in government upon which democracy depends.

No triumph for Israeli democracy

Israeli democracy at the crossroads

Dangerous Winds A'blowin

The Israel Broadcasting Authority, aided and abetted by the Supreme Court, has ruled that ads promoting the recitation of Psalms are unfit to be heard.

By declaring the word "Jew" to be incapable of definition, the Court effectively removed the nationality line from the identity card.

By applying different rules to itself than to the other branches of government and attributing to itself superhuman powers of discernment and freedom from bias, the Court does more to damage its own image than a host of critics ever could.

Planned SHUVU school in Holon is the latest battleground in the battle against religious institutions opening in mixed neighborhoods

Drunk with arrogance

Let democracy grow

Comparison of Rich and Har-Shefi pardon

How Israel's Supreme Court assumes the roles of the other branches of the government

A study of Israel's judicial selection "process"

Aharon Barak's behind-the-scenes political manipulations at the Knesset

The position of attorney general and how it serves the Israeli Supreme Court

Justice Aharon Barak feels that his opinion is the only valid one

Tax issues should not be left to the courts

The attorney-general and state attorney have a sordid habit of protecting their own, as seen in their attitude towards a Deri re-trial

The Israeli Supreme Court sees not reason to protect the Haredi minority

On Rubinstein's personal statement about public matters

The right of free speech in Israel depends on who is speaking

The Torah view on the mechanics of the parent-child relationship

The overturning of the Korman aquittal

Aharon Barak's lust for power as evidenced by the Elyagon promotion

On the court's ruling concerning the Lev L'Achim branch in Rehovot

On selective judicial activism

On the court's decision to forbid spanking

Attorney-General Rubinstein decides to investigate Rav Ovadia Yosef for incitement

How the Supreme Court discriminates on the basis of denomination

Israel's 'defenders of freedom' have repressed much of the country's communication

Problematic selection of Supreme Court justices unique to the Israeli system

A constitution, by its definition, must be enacted with public approval

Why current proposals for constitution will only lessen rule of law

I suspect many of us believe that an enlightened despotism with ourselves as despot is the ideal form of government

The Supreme Court has increasingly become a super- legislature, claiming authority to pass judgment on every decision of the other branches of government

How Barak insulates himself from criticism

Critique of decision to cut off funding to charedi youth groups

Critique of decision requiting screening on educational TV of program on teenage homosexuality

Barak shares with Frederick the Great more than a desire to advance his values with all the means at his disposal