The High Court of Justice rejected on Tuesday a request to postpone the reasonableness standard law hearing on September 12 by at least three weeks, but said that it would delay respondents’ argument filing and consider allowing the submission of additional arguments after the hearing.
Ilan Bombach, attorney for the government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Justice Minister Yariv Levin had asked for more time to prepare for the hearing, but the High Court said that it was not possible to postpone the hearing because of calendar constraints.
September and October are rife with High Holy Days, and the court goes on an eight-day recess for Sukkot. The court’s schedule also faces the challenge of President Esther Hayut and Justice Anat Baron’s retirements in mid-October.
The court acquiesced to Bombach’s request for a delay on the date he was required to submit responses to the petitions calling for the striking of the basic law amendment, moving the date from September 3 to 9. The Attorney-General’s Office would still need to file its opinion on September 3. The petitioner’s main arguments would need to be filed on September 10, rescheduled from September 7.
High Court moved up meeting for attorney’s son’s wedding
While the date of the hearing would not be delayed, the High Court decided to move up the time of the meeting two hours earlier, from 10:00 to 8:30. The court changed the time in response to Bombach’s concerns that he would have to reschedule his son’s wedding, which was set for later that evening.
Bombach had argued that the Attorney-General’s Office had only officialy decided on Tuesday that she would not be representing his clients due to conflicting perspectives on the basic law amendment, and he didn’t have enough time to properly address all of the petitions.
In a separate ruling on Tuesday morning, the High Court announced that they would not be accepting more petitions or amicus curiae.