As Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann began distributing a brief describing proposed legislation that would limit the ability of the Supreme Court to overturn laws passed by the Knesset, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch told reporters that she wants the court to be free of Justice Ministry oversight of its budget and administrative matters.


"The dependence is enormous. We are dependent on outside parties in matters of budgeting, construction and logistics," Justice Beinisch said Wednesday. The court president also accused unnamed sources of waging a campaign to "undermine the public faith in the court," saying, "We have no time for conflicts with a minister or anyone else. Scrutinizing the candidates has become the fashion, and every judge is considered suspect in advance."


However, the proposed legislation, Justice Minister Friedmann claimed, "would contribute to the public's confidence in the court and in the Knesset's legislative process."


According to Friedmann's proposed legislation, the Supreme Court 

The proposed legislation, Friedmann claimed, "would contribute to the public's confidence in the court and in the Knesset."

would be authorized to overturn a law duly passed by Knesset only if it violates basic principles of the state and only before a panel of nine judges. As Minister Friedmann explained on Wednesday, his proposed legislation would "for the first time, recognize the authority of the Supreme Court to overturn - with a two-thirds majority, before a panel of at least nine judges - a Knesset law that conflicts with a restrictive clause in a Basic Law; however, the Knesset retains the authority to pass the law again with a special majority of 61 votes, after a parliamentary review."


With the support of 61 legislators, the reinstated law would be immune to further Supreme Court reversal.


Justice Beinisch said that the "Canadian model," upon which Friedmann's legislation is based, is not suitable for the Israeli context. She opposes the provision according to which the Knesset could re-legislate a law overturned by the Supreme Court.