The Legislative Yuan rejected all seven nominees for the Constitutional Court today after holding a vote in the morning.
The seven had been nominated by President William Lai (賴清德) to sit on the Constitutional Court at the end of August, including to serve as the president and vice president of the Judicial Yuan.
After its caucus this morning, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) decided unanimously to approve only one of the nominees, Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), and reject the other six, TPP caucus whip Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said this morning.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
As defenders of the constitution, the justices should have solid morals and not be divided by party lines, Huang said. They should have the courage to criticize those in power and not submit to their will, he said.
At the same time, the justices must respect the authority of the Legislative Yuan and support the direction of congressional reform, he added.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus opposed all seven nominees.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus opposed Liu Ching-yi and approved the six other nominees.
The fact that one of Lai’s nominees was opposed by his own ruling party shows that Lai and the DPP are not only paralysing the legislature but also the Constitutional Court, said the TPP.
The reason why the TPP supported Liu is because she is brave enough to have a non-partisan stance on various issues, it said.
Liu was opposed by the DPP because she had said there is “room for improvement” regarding the Constitutional Court’s ruling over legislative oversight reforms, the TPP said.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said Liu had been “insulting” DPP legislators so they unanimously agreed to vote against her nomination.
“We would rather kill ourselves than vote for Liu,” he said.
He said he had called Lai in the morning, telling him that the DPP caucus would uphold its autonomy in the legislature.
Lai told him he respects their decision, Ker said.
KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) said the vote is tantamount to a no-confidence vote in Lai who he described as a “lame duck” president.
The ruling DPP caucus, the TPP and the KMT blocked all nominees in a “concerted effort” because they are all ineligible and unsuitable, he said.
Fu said he appreciates Ker’s “moral courage” in standing up against Lai by not appointing unsuitable candidates.
The Grand Justices of the Republic of China “castrate” the legislature’s power in the Constitutional Court, he said.
He also said Lai should learn from former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) who knew how to respect and negotiate with both the ruling and opposition parties.
We should nominate more suitable and acceptable people to safeguard the last line of defense in the judiciary, Fu said.
The nominee for president of the Judicial Yuan is Chang Wen-chin (張文貞), a professor of law at National Taiwan University (NTU) and chair of the Restoration of Victim's Rights Infringed by Illegal Acts of the State During the Period of Authoritarian Rule Foundation (財團法人威權統治時期國家不法行為被害者權利回復基金會).
Chang, who would have become the head of the Constitutional Court if her nomination had been successful, argued in the court in August that there were serious flaws in the way the legislation was brought about, calling for it to be declared unconstitutional.
The nominee for vice president of the Judicial Yuan is Yao Li-ming (姚立明), the chair of the Parliament Observation Culture and Education Foundation (國會觀察文教基金會), who ran Lai’s presidential campaign headquarters.
The other nominees for justices are Her Lai-jier (何賴傑), a professor of law at National Chengchi University; Chen Yun-tsai (陳運財), a professor of law at National Cheng Kung University; Wang Pi-fang (王碧芳), a presiding judge at the Supreme Administrative Court; Ford Liao (廖福特), a research professor at Academia Sinica’s Institutum Iurisprudentiae; and Liu Ching-yi, a professor at NTU’s Graduate Institute of National Development.
The approval of nominated justices requires more than half of the total legislators to agree.
As the current total of legislators is 113, 57 affirmative votes are needed for approval.
All nominees received 51 votes of approval and 62 votes of disapproval, except for Liu Ching-yi who received 8 votes of approval and 105 votes of disapproval.
As the combined numbers of KMT and TPP legislators exceed that of DPP legislators, even though the DPP supported six nominees, none were approved.
Currently, there are only eight serving justices as seven other justices saw their terms end on Oct. 31.
Recently, the Legislative Yuan passed amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) that stipulate if the number of justices falls below 15, the president must submit nominations to fill the vacancies within two months.
Additionally, the number of justices participating in deliberations must not be fewer than 10, and for a declaration of unconstitutionality to be made, at least nine justices must agree.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan, Liu Wan-lin and Bloomberg
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