The Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee on Thursday continues to discuss preparing a reduction of the reasonableness clause, as part of a proposal to amend Basic Law: The Judiciary, ahead of its second and third Knesset readings.
The reasonableness standard allows the court to rule against the validity of elected official's decisions that in a justice's opinion are beyond the scope of what a reasonable authority would undertake.
According to the opposition, although the coalition claims to have watered down the bill which is now being advanced, the new version is actually tougher than the version which passed its first Knesset reading a few days ago. According to them, the new version includes an amendment under which a decision not affected by the "reasonableness" standard for elected officials will be "any decision."
The new version refers to, "The decision - any decision, including on matters of appointments or a decision to avoid activating any authority." The version was published in response to threats by opposition leader MK Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) that he will turn to the Supreme Court within two weeks if Justice Minister Yariv Levin (Likud) does not activate the Judicial Selection Committee. Since changng the current makeup of the committee is one of the suggested reforms, Levin is waiting for that change to be decided upon before calling a meeting of the committee. Lapid would like to have the courts force the committee to meet claiming the the delay is "unreasonable" but the amendement will prevent him from doing so.
If the amended version of the bill is approved in its second and third readings, the legal backing for the petition Lapid is threatening to file will be non-existent.
In a message sent Wednesday night to other Knesset members, MK Simcha Rothman (Religious Zionism) said, "The version is a combination of the proposal which was put forward at the committee by Professor Friedman and others, to eliminate the words which deal with another elected official. In addition, this is an addition which will add clarity and which was proposed during the discussion on Monday by MK Amit Halevi (Likud)."