Impeachment Trial of Yoon, Is Ma Eun-hyuk a Variable?

The Constitutional Court's ruling on whether Acting President and Deputy Prime Minister for Economy and Minister of Strategy and Finance Choi Sang-mok's failure to appoint Ma Eun-hyuk as a Constitutional Court justice candidate is unconstitutional will be announced on the 27th.

Yonhap News

According to the legal community on the 25th, the Constitutional Court notified the parties that it will deliver its ruling on the dispute over authority filed by National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik, representing the National Assembly against Acting President Choi, at 10 a.m. on the 27th.

The key issue in the dispute over authority is whether Acting President Choi's failure to appoint the three Constitutional Court justice candidates elected by the National Assembly constitutes an omission and is therefore unconstitutional. The National Assembly elected candidates Jeong Gye-seon, Ma Eun-hyuk, and Jo Han-chang, but Acting President Choi delayed the appointments and only appointed Jeong Gye-seon and Jo Han-chang on December 31 of last year, excluding Ma. In response, Speaker Woo claimed that Acting President Choi's appointment of only two out of the three candidates elected by the National Assembly infringed upon the National Assembly's right to constitute the Constitutional Court and select justices, and filed the dispute over authority on the 3rd of last month.

The Constitutional Court is expected to first determine whether the filing of the dispute over authority was procedurally appropriate. If the filing procedure is deemed proper, the Court will likely assess whether Acting President Choi has an obligation to appoint the justices and whether the failure to appoint infringes upon the National Assembly's authority.

If the Constitutional Court rules that Acting President Choi's omission is unconstitutional, he will be required to appoint candidate Ma according to the ruling. Since the retirement of three justices on October 17 last year, the Court has operated with a panel of 6 to 8 justices, but this will finally restore the full panel of nine justices. In this case, with the change in the composition of justices, the Court, which had planned to conclude the oral arguments on this day, may resume the impeachment trial proceedings. Conversely, if the Court dismisses or rejects the dispute, the current composition of the panel is expected to remain unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court originally planned to announce the ruling on the dispute over authority on the 3rd, but Acting President Choi's side requested a resumption of oral arguments before the ruling, leading to an additional hearing held on the 10th.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.