The Constitutional Court will resume the hearings on the constitutional dispute case raised by the National Assembly regarding Acting President Choi Sang-mok's decision to withhold the appointment of the Constitutional Court Justice candidate Ma Eun-hyeok on the 10th. Previously, the court had conducted the hearings on this case only once and attempted to deliver its decision on the 3rd, but decided to hold additional hearings. At that time, when the court decided to resume the hearings just two hours before the scheduled decision announcement, the legal community reacted by saying, "The court essentially admitted that the deliberation was inadequate by rushing to deliver a decision."
On the same day at 2 p.m., the Constitutional Court is scheduled to hold the second hearing on the constitutional dispute filed by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik against Acting President Choi at the court in Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Previously, Acting President Choi appointed only two of the three Constitutional Court Justice candidates elected by the National Assembly on December 31 last year (Jung Gye-seon and Jo Han-chang) and withheld the appointment of candidate Ma due to a lack of agreement between the ruling and opposition parties. In response, Speaker Woo Won-sik raised a constitutional dispute before the court on the 3rd of last month, noting that the National Assembly's authority to elect justices had been infringed.
After announcing its policy for 'early hearings', the court concluded the first hearing for this case in just 1 hour and 30 minutes on the 22nd of last month, and immediately wrapped up the hearings. It was scheduled to hold the decision announcement at 2 p.m. on the 3rd, but announced a postponement just two hours prior.
In the legal community, there were evaluations of this as 'unprecedented' and opinions suggesting that it was a measure taken with an awareness of the procedural legality controversy surrounding this case.
There are two key issues in this case. First is whether a resolution from the National Assembly's general meeting was needed for Speaker Woo to file a constitutional dispute against Acting President Choi. The side of President Yoon and the ruling party raised procedural concerns regarding Speaker Woo filing the case in the name of the National Assembly without a general session.
Whether there was an agreement between the ruling and opposition parties on the selection of candidate Ma as a Constitutional Court Justice is also a major issue. To prove its claims of an agreement, the National Assembly submitted to the court a document that People Power Party sent to Speaker Woo, which included a list of members participating in the special committee for the personnel hearing of the three candidates, including candidate Ma, sent on December 11 of last year.
On the other hand, the side of Acting President Choi stated that there was no final agreement between the ruling and opposition parties regarding the recommendation of justices like candidate Ma, and they have submitted statements from former floor leader Chug Kyung-ho and current floor leader Kwon Seong-dong.