All 194 cases filed since the launch of the judicial appeal system — which allows constitutional complaints against court rulings — have been dismissed through three rounds of preliminary screening. Not a single case has cleared the Constitutional Court's preliminary review threshold to date.
The Constitutional Court said Monday that its designated panels, each composed of three justices, dismissed a total of 120 judicial appeal cases following deliberations.
The designated panels had previously dismissed 26 cases on May 12 and 48 cases on May 31. Of the 322 judicial appeal cases filed between the system's launch on May 12 and the day before Monday's announcement, a cumulative 194 have now been dismissed. No case has passed preliminary screening to be referred to the full bench, where all justices review the merits.
As in previous rounds, the most common ground for dismissal was failure to meet the "grounds for appeal" requirement, accounting for 77 cases. This was followed by "expiration of filing period" at 30 cases, "other procedural deficiencies" at 14 cases, and "failure to exhaust remedies" at four cases. Five cases had overlapping grounds for dismissal.
A judicial appeal filed by Jang Young-ha, chairman of the People Power Party's Seongnam Sujeong-gu district chapter, was also dismissed for failing to meet the grounds-for-appeal requirement. Jang had received a suspended prison sentence for claiming that President Lee Jae-myung had ties to organized crime. A judicial appeal filed by YouTuber Gujaeyeok (real name Lee Jun-hui), who was sentenced to three years in prison for extorting tens of millions of won from fellow YouTuber Tzuyang, was dismissed on the same grounds.
Under Article 72 of the Constitutional Court Act, constitutional complaint cases including judicial appeals undergo preliminary screening by designated panels of three justices. A dedicated pre-screening division staffed by eight constitutional researchers supports the panels.
During the preliminary screening stage, cases that fail to meet filing requirements are dismissed, while cases deemed procedurally valid are referred to the full bench for deliberation. If no dismissal decision is made within 30 days of filing a constitutional complaint, the case is automatically deemed referred for adjudication.
The government approved the disbursement of 6.66 billion won ($4.8 million) from reserve funds to cover personnel and operating costs for the judicial appeal system at a cabinet meeting presided over by President Lee the previous day.