The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday filed an application with the Judicial Yuan for a constitutional interpretation on the government's controversial policy of collecting fingerprints for the new national identification cards. Collection of fingerprints for the new cards is slated to begin on July 1.
The Council of Grand Justices could issue a temporary injunction against the law regulating the new policy.
According to Article 8 of the Household Registration Law (戶籍法), as of July 1, all citizens over the age of 14 must submit a full set of fingerprints when applying for an ID card. The new obligation has been marred by controversy since it was proposed. The DPP argues that the law violates privacy rights, and that the Council of Grand Justices should issue a temporary injunction on the law and rule it is inapplicable.
DPP caucus whip Chen Chin-jun (陳景峻) yesterday said that many people have expressed doubt about the fingerprint regulations because they think fingerprints and would not be helpful in catching criminals, as the Ministry of Interior has claimed.
"Given that July 1 is coming soon, we hope the Council of Grand Justices will consider our application for a constitutional interpretation [on the law] as an extra-urgent case before the provision comes into effect," Chen said.
Thus far the DPP has filed three applications for a constitutional interpretation on a host of laws, including Article 8 of the Household Registration Law, the Statute Governing the Operation of the National Assembly (國大職權行使法) and the pan-blue camp's habitual boycotts of bills in the legislature, including the arms procurement bill.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching