The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus would this week review KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling’s (翁曉玲) proposal to raise the threshold for Constitutional Court justices to pass a ruling and whether to include it in the caucus’ priority agenda in the new legislative session, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) said yesterday.
Weng has proposed amending the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), which would require a two-thirds majority to pass a ruling, as opposed to the current law which stipulates a simple majority of the 15-member Constitutional Court for a ruling to pass.
Taiwan People’s Party lawmakers said they support the proposal because they want to prevent just a few judges from having an outsized impact on the rights of citizens, they said.
Photo: Liao Cheng-hui, Taipei Times
“This proposal would be taken up at legislative committee for deliberation, and we would also solicit opinions from civil society, to reach a good balance between the ruling by the grand justices, and the will of the public,” KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said.
Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the efforts are attempts to manipulate the justice system and are motivated by a political vendetta against the court after it made rulings the opposition parties did not agree with.
Raising the threshold to a two-thirds majority would require having more than 10 grand justices presiding over a case, of which at least seven of them would need to reach an agreement to make a constitutional ruling or hand out an injunction, he said.
It would make it more difficult for the court to function, he said.
“It is clearly a political vendetta to cause hostile confrontation among the parties. Requiring a two-thirds agreement for a ruling would impact the court’s functioning,” Ker said.
“If the KMT persist in these malevolent tactics, they will destroy Taiwan’s constitutional democracy, bringing strife and instability to our nation,” he added.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin
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