Rival parties clashed head-on again at a parliamentary audit of the Constitutional Court over whether the president may demand that the chief justice renominate a Supreme Court justice, and over the country's new trial appeal system. The ruling party sharpened its pressure by blaming the chief justice for the vacancy on the Supreme Court bench, while the opposition countered that the renomination demand itself has no constitutional basis.
At the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee's audit of the Constitutional Court on the 13th, the Democratic Party of Korea characterized Chief Justice Jo Hee-de's refusal to renominate as dereliction of duty. "Isn't it dereliction of duty to refuse the appointing authority's demand for renomination and leave former Justice Noh Tae-ak's seat vacant for 223 days?" Rep. Lee Sung-yoon of the Democratic Party asked. Son In-hyeok, secretary general of the Constitutional Court, agreed that "it is not a constitutionally desirable state of affairs."
The Democratic Party also argued that the president's appointment power ranks above the chief justice's nomination power under the Constitution. When Rep. Kim Dong-ah said, "I believe an obligation to comply naturally arises when the president judges a nomination improper and demands a renomination," Son said the question was "a core issue that is difficult to answer," while adding that whether the nomination power is subsumed under the president's appointment power is the issue in the pending competence dispute case. Asked which power takes precedence, Son left room for either reading, saying it "could differ depending on whether you weigh the text or the purpose more heavily." Rep. Kim Ki-pyo also asked whether it was unconstitutional to examine whether the nomination power had been properly exercised, and Son replied, "I don't think that in itself can be judged unconstitutional."
The People Power Party, by contrast, pushed back that the renomination demand lacked any legal basis and amounted to an attempt to bring the judiciary to heel. Rep. Park Hyung-soo of the People Power Party, the opposition's floor liaison on the committee, asked, "All legal interpretation must be faithful to the text at its root, so isn't it the case that there is neither a constitutional basis nor a precedent for demanding a renomination?" Son acknowledged, "Textually, there is none."
"The appointment power, the nomination power and the National Assembly's consent power are all structured in parallel for checks and balances, and none of them ranks above the others," Park said. "Isn't the intent behind attacking the chief justice ultimately to hand-pick the justices who will handle President Lee Jae-myung's trials?" Rep. Kim Tae-gyu then asked whether the chief justice's nomination power, written into the Constitution, could be restricted by statute, and Son concurred, "Of course that is so."
The parties also traded arguments over the trial appeal system, which took effect this year. "Chief Justice Jo and the Supreme Court intimidated the public by claiming that introducing trial appeals would create a litigation hell of more than 15,000 cases a year," Rep. Park Eun-jung of the Rebuilding Korea Party said. "Since not one of those claims has been borne out, the head of the judiciary should admit before the public that he was wrong."
Rep. Kwak Kyu-taek of the People Power Party countered that 99.6% of filings had been dismissed since the system took effect and that the entire early backlog had been thrown out, making it a system that should be scrapped. "This conclusion precisely confirms the public's suspicion that the system was created so that defendant Lee Jae-myung could at least seek a trial appeal if the Supreme Court upholds a guilty verdict against him," he said.
The audit also produced an exchange over allegations about the president's weekend golf outings. Rep. Joo Jin-woo of the People Power Party, noting that the ruling party had filed a criminal complaint against him for spreading false information, said, "When I pointed out the problems with the president's imperial golf, the Democratic Party collectively hit a meltdown button as if they had received orders from the presidential office." He added, "Do you call it spreading false information when someone raises a problem? I will not let this pass this way."