[JURIST] The Congress of Ecuador [government website in Spanish] voted Sunday to disband the country's current Supreme Court [official webiste in Spanish] following an earlier attempt on Friday [JURIST report] to do the same thing by Ecuador President Lucio Gutierrez [Wikipedia profile]. Congress decided in an emergency session Sunday night that, since they appointed the interim court members, only they had the power to dismiss them. Congress will begin hearings on Tuesday to decide how to fill the 31 now-empty judicial seats. The controversy surrounding the Supreme Court reaches back to Gutierrez's December dismissal of the previous court [JURIST report] as biased against him. In the four months since, Gutierrez has faced intense public and government pressure to restore the court as neutral, independent body. Reuters has more. El Comercio has local coverage in Spanish.