When may a party challenge a justice of the Constitutional Court, and what cuts off that right once the party has appeared and spoken on the merits at the hearing?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, the practice file to read is the record of the oral argument hearing, showing whether the party attended and whether it made a statement on the merits, and the written challenge naming the justice and describing the circumstances said to make an impartial trial hard to expect.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading treats the right to challenge as open whenever a circumstance exists that makes an impartial trial hard to expect, and as closed only where the party appeared at the oral argument hearing and made a statement on the merits, because the proviso withholds the challenge 'in that case'.
Another reading notes that the provision sets no period of days at all, so the bar turns on two events alone, appearance at the hearing and a statement on the merits, and separately limits a party to challenging no more than one justice in the same case, while it does not define what counts as a statement on the merits, nor whether a challenge already refused counts toward that one-justice limit.
Your judgment
If a party spoke briefly at the hearing, what in the record would show whether that remark was a statement on the merits that closed the challenge?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to define a statement on the merits or to set a filing period, or if a Constitutional Court decision explains whether a previously refused challenge counts toward the limit on challenging justices in one case.