The Constitutional Court on Wednesday reached a majority vote in favor of accepting a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) petition to review the constitutionality of changes to the law regarding the makeup of the court, the Judicial Yuan said today.
DPP legislators on Feb. 20 requested an injunction and constitutional judgement on amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), which were promulgated by President William Lai (賴清德) two days prior.
The third reading of the amendments was passed on Dec. 20 last year, stating that if the number of justices on the Constitutional Court falls below the mandated 15, the president must nominate candidates to fill the roster within two months.
Photo: Yang Kuo-wen, Taipei Times
It also stipulates that there be a minimum of 10 justices on a court, with nine justices required to back an unconstitutional ruling.
Current regulations do not specify the minimum number of judges required to hear a case.
The Executive Yuan on Jan. 2 submitted a proposal to reconsider the amendments, which was approved by the president and sent to the Legislative Yuan.
On Jan. 10, the Legislative Yuan voted on the proposal, which did not pass after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party legislators joined forces to oppose it.
The DPP subsequently filed for an injunction and constitutional judgement.
The Constitutional Court held a public hearing on Monday, inviting relevant agencies and experts to speak.
Wednesday’s decision is in line with Article 32, Paragraph 2 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), the Judicial Yuan said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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