The Constitutional Court yesterday announced the procedures for the morning and afternoon sessions on Aug. 6 to hear oral arguments from lawyers and representatives of political parties on a constitutional interpretation regarding executive oversight amendments, following the granting of a temporary injunction on Friday last week against the amendments.
The Constitutional Court justices would preside over the two hearing sessions on the legislation amendments introduced and passed by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers, and opposed by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The Constitutional Court has scheduled Aug. 5 to hear from the KMT and TPP on requiring the president to give a state of the nation address at the legislature and answer questions from legislators, and the rights of lawmakers for confirmation hearings, reject key appointments to government ministries and make changes to the legislative process.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The afternoon session would hear on amendments to expand lawmakers’ investigative powers to hold legislative hearings into cases under investigation, and changes to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code that would make “contempt of the legislature” a punishable crime.
In the court’s notification, the Aug. 6 sessions would start at 9am, and would finish at 5pm.
Meanwhile, the Judicial Yuan in a release yesterday said that people who threaten or incite violence against the personal safety of grand justices would be prosecuted.
The Judicial Yuan said that a police investigation is ongoing after reports of people posting messages on social media platforms threatening the grand justices.
“People who threaten the personal safety and property of grand justices have exceeded the bounds of freedom of expression. In a free and democratic society with the rule of law, such offenses cannot be tolerated, and therefore an investigation has been initiated to collect evidence and other legal procedures for prosecution,” the release said.
“We urge the public to condemn such action of contravening the law, which also endangers the nation’s democratic Constitutional framework,” it added.
“The grand justices are bound by their official duty to take on the work for constitutional interpretation, in acting as the last line of defense to uphold the Constitution. By law, the grand justices have judicial independence to make rulings, without interference, and they are also obliged to hear from all sectors of the society and to accept criticism,” it said.
“However, any deliberate actions to defame or vilify the Grand Justices are attacks against our democratic Constitutional framework, which could lead to public confrontation, destabilize the rule of law and result in social disorder,” the release said.
“Therefore we urge the public to conduct discussions with reasons and self-discipline, without resorting to threats of violence,” the release added.
Rain is to increase from Wednesday morning as Severe Tropical Storm Kong-Rey approaches, with sea warnings to be issued as early as tomorrow afternoon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. As of 8am, Kong-Rey was 1,050km east-southeast of the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春) heading in a northwesterly direction toward Taiwan, CWA Forecast Center Director Lin Po-tung (林伯東) said. Rainfall is to increase from Wednesday morning, especially in northern Taiwan and Yilan County, he said. A sea warning is possible from tomorrow afternoon, while a land warning may be issued on Wednesday morning, he added. Kong-Rey may intensify into a moderate typhoon as it passes
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Taiwan yesterday issued warnings to four Chinese coast guard vessels that intruded into restricted waters around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen Islands, according to the Coast Guard Administration (CGA). The four China Coast Guard ships were detected approaching restricted waters south of Kinmen at around 2 pm yesterday, the CGA’s Kinmen-Matsu Branch said in a statement. The CGA said it immediately deployed four patrol boats to closely monitor the situation. When the Chinese ships with the hull numbers "14512," "14609," "14603" and "14602" separately entered the restricted waters off Fuhsing islet (復興嶼), Zhaishan (翟山), Sinhu (新湖) and Liaoluo (料羅) at 3 pm, the Taiwanese patrol
MUCH-NEEDED: After China demonstrated its capabilities to deploy vertical launching systems, Taiwan needs air defense systems such as NASAMS, a defense expert said The US’ approval of exports of three advanced air defense missile systems to Taiwan signified NATO’s goodwill toward the nation, a Taiwanese defense expert said. The US Defense Security Cooperation Agency on Friday announced the US$1.16 billion sale of the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) and the US$828 million sale of AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar turnkey systems. The NASAMS is a network that uses ground-launched Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) to intercept hostile aircraft, drones and cruise missiles. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the state-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said