Constitutional Court impasse continues as Cabinet seeks reform bill revote

Taipei, Jan. 2 (CNA) The Cabinet said Thursday that it will request a new vote on Constitutional Court reforms that lawmakers passed on Dec. 20, signaling further deadlock between the central government and the opposition-controlled Legislature.

With the approval of the president, the Cabinet's revote request will be sent to the Legislature, which is almost certain to pass the reforms a second time.

As a result, the political impasse over the issue, created by a combination of court vacancies and reforms sought by the Legislature, is likely to continue, as CNA explains below.

Constitutional Court reforms

On Dec. 20, opposition lawmakers pushed through controversial amendments to raise the threshold for the Constitutional Court to hear and decide cases.

The legislation would require at least 10 justices on the court -- which normally has 15 members -- to hear a case, and at least nine justices to back any unconstitutional ruling.

Current rules do not specify a minimum number of justices required to hear a case. Instead, they simply mandate the presence of at least two-thirds of all sitting justices, with a ruling determined by a simple vote.

While the government has asked the Legislature to hold a new vote on the bill, it is unlikely to yield a different result: The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds only 51 seats in the 113-seat Legislature, while the two opposition parties that passed the bill, the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), jointly control 62 seats.

Constitutional Court vacancies

The opposition-backed bill creates problems because the eight-year terms of seven of the Constitutional Court's 15 judges ended on Oct. 31 last year.

With only eight justices left, the court does not have the number required by the bill to hear cases.

President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) has put forward seven nominees to fill the vacancies, but all of them were rejected by the Legislature on Dec. 24, with opposition parties claiming they were too partisan.

To date, Lai has not sought another vote on the nominees or named new candidates to replace them.

Possible resolutions

On Wednesday, DPP lawmaker Wu Szu-yao (吳思瑤) said that if the Legislature held a new vote on the court reforms and passed them again, the DPP's Legislative caucus would seek an injunction to halt the bill's enactment and request a Constitutional interpretation.

Cabinet Minister without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin (林明昕) also signaled support for a court challenge at a news briefing Thursday, saying that the reforms would violate the constitutionally enshrined separation and balance of powers between Taiwan's five branches of government.

Taking this road risks setting off a potential crisis, as the Constitutional Court would be asked to rule on legislation directly relating to its own powers, with only eight judges available to hear the case (rather than 10, as required by the bill).

However, under Article 43 of the Constitutional Court Procedure Act, the court can issue a preliminary injunction against a law with a quorum of two-thirds of incumbent justices, and a majority voting in support of the injunction.

Alternatively, the government could hold negotiations with the opposition-controlled Legislature to select seven Constitutional Court nominees who are acceptable to both sides.

If it did so, the government could still seek an injunction and constitutional interpretation for the reforms after the new justices are seated.

The eight justices currently on the Constitutional Court were all seated either in 2019 or 2023, during the May 2016-2024 period when the DPP held both the presidency and a majority in the Legislature.