The Constitutional Court’s decision to uphold the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye is being taken as a signal that the judiciary focused on the legal judgment of her charges, excluding the intervention of individual justices’ political tendencies.
The ruling also dispelled rampant concerns that the largely conservative-leaning top court would be inclined to show tolerance towards Park, while resisting the radical decision to oust the state chief.
The court on Friday announced the expulsion of the suspended president in a unanimous decision of the eight members of the bench.
(Yonhap)
The originally nine-member bench, temporarily reduced to an eight-member system due to the end of former Chief Justice Park Han-chul’s term in late January, includes a variety of political orientations.
While acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi has been classified as a moderate centrist, five other justices have been seen to be conservative. The right-leaning tendency was especially strongest among those recommended by the former President Park, including the former chief justice.
Observers pointed out that such conservative propensity led the court to agree on dissolving the Unified Progressive Party in 2014, acknowledging its pro-North Korea doctrine and conspiracy to overthrow the South Korean administration.
As a minimum of six of eight upholding opinions were needed for a quorum, this characteristic was deemed a major obstacle in ousting the embattled president.
The court, however, often pledged to keep its focus on legal judgment, vowing to exclude personal tendencies as much as possible from the ruling.
In 2004, shortly before dismissing the impeachment case of former liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, the court said it would not be held back by “procedural flaws” as claimed by the president’s lawyers, but rather focus on the “substantive issues” of the impeachment.
By Bae Hyun-jung (
tellme@heraldcorp.com)