Two justices' coming exits raise concerns about Constitutional Court's functioning
Eyes on acting president's decision on Assembly nominee Ma Eun-hyeok
With two justices at South Korea's Constitutional Court set to retire on April 18, concerns are growing over the court's ability to function effectively, as only six out of nine of its positions will be filled.
According to legal experts, acting Chief Justice Moon Hyung-bae and Justice Lee Mi-son will conclude their six-year terms next week. Both were appointed by former President Moon Jae-in under the presidential quota that allows the head of the administration to directly designate three of the court's nine members.
Theoretically, the court can still deliberate on cases and deliver rulings with just six justices, as in October last year, the court temporarily suspended a provision of the Constitutional Court Act that requires at least seven justices to be present for deliberations to proceed.
This comes after a unanimous decision by the court to grant an injunction request filed by Korea Communications Commission Chairwoman Lee Jin-sook, whose impeachment was dismissed on Jan. 23. Lee had challenged Article 23, Paragraph 1 of the Constitutional Court Act, which mandates a minimum of seven justices for a case to be heard.
However, legal observers are skeptical about the court's ability to issue meaningful rulings with just six members. From October to December last year, the court was unable to deliver a single ruling until Chung Kye-sun and Cho Han-chang were appointed by then-acting President Choi Sang-mok on Jan. 1.
Attention now turns to whether current acting President Han Duck-soo will proceed with the appointment of Ma Eun-hyeok, the remaining nominee for the bench. Ma's confirmation has been halted due to a lack of bipartisan agreement in the National Assembly.
The Constitutional Court has not yet commented on the successors to Justices Moon and Lee, whose replacements require direct presidential appointment, raising a question of whether acting President Han has the authority to make such appointments.
If Han postpones the appointments until after a new president is elected, the earliest the Constitutional Court could be fully staffed with nine justices would be around July. This timeline assumes the new president appoints Ma, who has already been nominated by the Assembly, along with two additional nominees of his or her own. The confirmation and appointment process typically takes about a month.
Meanwhile, several high-profile cases are pending at the court, including those related to the Severe Disaster Punishment Act and same-sex marriage, as well as a number of jurisdictional disputes and the impeachment trials of Police Chief Cho Ji-ho and prosecutor Son Joon-seong, which haven't even started the deliberations yet.
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