Supreme Court Justice Noam Sohlberg issued an unusual statement today (Monday) in which he clarified remarks he made three years ago calling for the limitation of the court's ability to apply the reasonableness standard.
"I didn't think that it was necessary to amend the reasonableness standard by way of legislation but through the courts," said Justice Sohlberg.
The reasonableness standard allows the courts to strike down government actions or laws not on the basis of an established legal or constitutional principle, but because in the judges' opinion that no "reasonable" government would take such an action or pass such a law.
In 2020, Sohlberg wrote that “decisions made by the elected officials — the government, ministers, heads of local authorities — are, for the most part, decisions that reflect a worldview; a values-based worldview, a professional worldview."
He added that the reasonableness standard "Strikes at the core of the principle of the separation of powers."
Coalition officials have quoted Justice Sohlberg's past remarks to support the current push to pass legislation limiting the court's ability to use the reasonableness standand.