Constitutional Court in a bind after justice nominees rejected

Taipei, Dec. 24 (CNA) All seven justice nominees selected by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) to fill the vacancies on Taiwan's Constitutional Court were rejected by lawmakers on Tuesday, an expected outcome that may immobilize the court in the near future.

None of the seven nominees, including law professor Chang Wen-chen (張文貞) and former lawmaker Yao Li-ming (姚立明) -- who were also tapped as the head and deputy head of the Judicial Yuan -- received the necessary 57 votes in the 113-seat Legislature for approval.

In particular, 52 lawmakers from the main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and the two independents ideologically aligned with the party voted against all the nominees picked by Lai at the end of August.

The outcome reflected the KMT's pledges to reject candidates that they felt were partisan nominees, especially Yao, who served as the director of Lai's presidential campaign headquarters in the 2024 presidential election.

It was also in line with the party's fierce anti-abolition campaign launched following the Constitutional Court's death penalty ruling in September, which it denounced as effectively ending the statutory punishment in Taiwan in all but name.

The eight lawmakers with the smaller Taiwan People's Party (TPP), which has collaborated with the KMT on many legislative proposals, joined with the KMT to vote down six of the seven nominees.

They supported Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡), who currently teaches at National Taiwan University, but ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers defied the president on Liu's nomination and joined with the KMT in rejecting her because of negative comments she has made about the ruling party and some of its leaders.

Liu, who holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Chicago, claimed for example that both former President Tsai Ing-wen and former Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) were corrupt, DPP party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said at a news conference later Tuesday.

DPP lawmakers supported the six other nominees, but their 51 votes were not enough to get any of them confirmed.

With amendments requiring a minimum of 10 justices to hear a case pushed through by opposition party lawmakers in the Legislature last week, Tuesday's votes will in effect immobilize the current eight-member Constitutional Court.

The Constitutional Court normally has 15 justices, but currently only has eight, as the eight-year terms of seven of its justices ended on Oct. 31.

This marks the lowest number of justices since the introduction of judicial interpretation in Taiwan in 1947 and the first time that the Judicial Yuan, which overseas the Constitutional Court, is without a president and vice president.

Speaking with local reporters on Tuesday, Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said the office respected the Legislature's voting results and would proceed with a renomination process, though she did not specify a timeline.

The Legislature's review of judicial appointments has drawn criticism from civil society groups, including the Judicial Reform Foundation.

In a statement last week, they bashed some lawmakers -- most of whom are from the KMT -- for determining the suitability of the nominees solely based on their stance on the death penalty.

They noted that given the Constitutional Court's recent ruling, it was "unlikely" that the new justices would address the same issue in their eight-year terms.