A Journey to the Nub of Judicial Reform

The basic request from opponents of judicial reform – “protect us from abuse of power”. Underlying proposition – judicial reform is removing checks on the power of politicians which will invariably drive corruption, infringe civil rights, and undermine the basis for fair electoral competition in the future.

Yes, it goes without saying, every person will feel more strongly in their heart towards one side or the other, but for those that are machmir to fulfil the mitzvah not to hate your brother in your heart, it seems to me at essence these two requests do not have to be in conflict.

The way out of our dark place, then, is to demonstrably increase the representativeness and decrease the activism of the judiciary on the one hand, and maintain, even strengthen, robust checks on the abuse of political power on the other.

If this is the nub of the issue, it seems to me the main danger of reaching a fair and balanced outcome stems from the social media echo chamber – the real enemy here, in my opinion – and the loudmouth conspiratorialist trolls that will invariably come steaming in at the first sign of deconfliction, may Hashem protect us from them.

Loudmouth conspiratorialist troll supporters of judicial reform will say, ah yes, but the opponents are not really interested in protections against abuse of power, they really are looking to impose their values on us so lets not waste our time with niceties – we must simply eviscerate the judiciary.

And loudmouth conspiratorialist troll opponents of judicial reform will say, ah yes, but this government is not really interested to make the judiciary more representative and less activist, they really are looking at a huge power grab, so lets not waste our time with niceties – we must simply eviscerate the government.

So my additional suggestion – let us call out the loudmouth conspiratorialist trolls for what they are, drain the social media echo chamber swamp, and let the civil-minded among us get to work reconciling the basically reasonable requests that each side has.