00:00The Constitutional Court just made its first ruling of the year after reviving itself in December,
00:05and we're starting to see a split among the justices.
00:08Of the eight now on the court, five are supporting the new ruling, and three are not participating.
00:13We saw the same thing in the court's ruling just a couple weeks ago,
00:17its first for 2025, and one that essentially allowed it to function again.
00:30Now, although five justices is far from a majority of the full 15 that should be sitting on the court,
00:51it seems that this is how Taiwan's top court will be making decisions for the time being.
00:55The three non-participating justices say the court can't make decisions
00:59because there aren't enough of them to do so,
01:01though they haven't commented yet on this most recent ruling.
01:04The problem is, President Lai Ching-de has already nominated over a dozen people to fill those empty seats,
01:10but they've all been rejected by the opposition in the legislature,
01:13so those seats remain unfilled.
01:15Now, the five justices that support the ruling say they're upholding an essential function of the government.
01:21But they face challenges.
01:23The main opposition, Guo Ming-dang, says that lowering the number of justices could weaken future decisions,
01:28and they filed complaints against those five participating justices.
01:32Leon Lian and Tiffany Wong in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.
Comments