Amendments seeking to raise the threshold for passing a constitutional interpretation passed directly to the second reading today without any objections.
The changes to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) proposed by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) would require a two-thirds majority to pass a ruling.
Current law stipulates a simple majority of the 15-member Constitutional Court for a ruling to pass.
Photo: CNA
Another amendment proposed in the previous session by Weng would change the court’s quorum from two-thirds of presently incumbent justices to two-thirds of the full court.
With seven justices set to retire at the end of next month, the eight remaining judges would be short of the 10-member quorum stipulated by the amendment.
Critics have raised concern that the opposition could refuse to approve new appointments, effectively paralyzing the court as it is set to rule on controversial bills passed with the opposition parties’ majority.
The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party say the changes are necessary to prevent a few judges from having an outsized impact on the people’s lives.
The push also comes a week after a simple majority of a 12-member bench ruled to uphold the death penalty, but limited its application to only the most extreme cases.
Three justices had recused themselves for having previously represented death-row inmates.
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