After 3-year hiatus, new justices to be appointed in March

The Judicial Appointments Committee will meet in two months' time to choose new Supreme Court justices, ending a period of almost three years during which no new justices were appointed despite the fact that five seats on the bench remain unfilled.

The state informed the High Court of Justice on Sunday of Justice Minister Tzipi Livni's decision to convene the committee, in response to a petition demanding this step that had been filed by former journalist Ben-Zion Citrin.

The Supreme Court is supposed to have 15 justices, but it has been below full strength for several years now. The last justices named to the court, in May 2004, were Edna Arbel, Elyakim Rubinstein, Salim Joubran and Esther Hayut. Since then, four other justices have retired, on top of the two who had retired shortly beforehand.

As a result, there are currently only 10 permanent justices, plus two temporary appointees - Dvora Berliner and David Cheshin - whose terms expire next month. Thus when the committee meets, it will have to choose five new justices.

A Haaretz study has found that over the last three years, the court has missed 74 months of judicial work - the equivalent of more than two full-time justices over this entire period. In his petition, Citrin argued that the shortage of judges impaired the court's work and the administration of justice.

The country's lower courts have long suffered from a severe shortage of judges, in part because meetings of the Judicial Appointments Committee have been repeatedly postponed. Judges were last appointed to the magistrate's and district courts in March 2005. Dozens of judges have retired or quit since then, leaving over 30 positions unfilled.

In the past year the Judicial Appointments Committee has met twice, to approve the appointments of Dorit Beinisch and Eliezer Rivlin as Supreme Court president and deputy president, respectively. Livni has informed the High Court that the committee will meet three times over the next two months: on February 27 and March 15 to approve dozens of appointments to the lower courts, and on March 25 to appoint new Supreme Court justices.

The state argued that this decision makes the petition, which the court is due to hear on Wednesday, unnecessary. However, Citrin plans to ask the court to issue a ruling confirming Livni's pledge, which would essentially make the promised meetings court-ordered.

Legal sources speculated that Livni deferred the Supreme Court appointments to the last of the three meetings because she would prefer not to be involved in them at all. She was appointed to replace former justice minister Haim Ramon during his sexual harassment trial, and once the verdict in this case is issued, on January 31, either he will return to the ministry or the cabinet will choose a permanent replacement. Livni, who is also foreign minister, has said that she has no interest in keeping the justice portfolio permanently.

Since the law requires candidates' names to be published 21 days before the committee meets to discuss them, the names of the Supreme Court nominees would have to published by February 6 if the committee were to discuss them at the February 27 meeting. That would almost certainly force Livni, rather than her successor, to submit the nominations.