Esther Hayut Retires as President of the Israeli Supreme Court
Israel’s Supreme Court President Esther Hayut will end her term in office on Monday after seven years at the helm of Israel’s highest court, having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Hayut has written majority opinions on some of the most crucial issues facing the country in recent years, from the ability of the prime minister to serve while under indictment to the legality of settlements built on private Palestinian land, as well as on the very nature of Israel’s national character.
The traditional retirement ceremony at the Supreme Court has been canceled because of the ongoing war in Gaza.
Supreme Court justices have three months after they retire to write opinions on cases they have heard. In the coming months Hayut will likely do so in perhaps the most consequential case ever to come before the court, the government’s recent legislation known as the “reasonableness law,” which restricts the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review over administrative decisions by the government and cabinet ministers.
The case is of critical importance since it deals with an amendment to one of Israel’s quasi-constitutional Basic Laws, which the court has never struck down. It seems likely that even if Hayut and the rest of the court decide not to strike down the law outright, the Supreme Court president will further reinforce opinions she has issued in the past bolstering the court’s position that it does have the right to conduct judicial review over the country’s constitutional arrangements in extreme circumstances.
She is also expected to be involved in a ruling on a second recent change to a Basic Law that sought to block the court from being able to order a prime minister to recuse himself from office.
Since Justice Minister Yariv Levin has refused to convene the Judicial Selection Committee, no new president can be chosen. Current Deputy President Uzi Vogelman will become acting court president on Tuesday.
Hayut was appointed to serve on the Supreme Court as a permanent justice in 2004, after stints in the Tel Aviv Magistrates’ Court and District Court.
As president of the Supreme Court since 2017, Hayut has written opinions for the majority in some of the most important cases to come before the court in the last 20 years.
