Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Jewish Home) refused Supreme Court Chief Justice Miriam Naor's request to include in upcoming Judicial Selection Committee's meetings the vote for Esther Hayut as the new Supreme Court Chief Justice.
Chief Justices are usually chosen based on seniority, and Hayut would be next in line.
According to a report in Yediot Ahronot, Naor requested several times that Shaked add the issue of Hayut replacing Naor to the meeting's schedule.
However, Shaked refused to choose the new Chief Justice according to seniority, and did not accede to Naor's request to bring the subject up at the meeting.
Yediot Ahronot noted that Shaked, like previous justice ministers, opposed choosing a Chief Justice based on seniority, since such a choice is determined ahead of time and does not require a vote. Instead, Shaked said the choice must be determined based on a justice's accomplishments and the preference of the selection committee.
However, Naor insists the chief justice be chosen by the traditional method, by which all previous chief justices were chosen, in order to prevent justices from trying to fit their opinions to the various politicians' political agendas.
Naor also said she wanted Hayut's appointment to be official as soon as possible, so that she could properly train Hayut in her new task before her own retirement in October.