CAIRO—Egypt's swift political turn cast sudden scrutiny on the country's new interim president—Adly Mansour, the head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court, a position he assumed just two days earlier.
Associated Press Adly Mansour listens to a speech during his swearing in as interim president on Thursday.
Mr. Mansour now finds himself in the drivers' seat of a deeply unstable nation of 93 million people.
"I can't attest to whether or not he will be up to the responsibility," Maher Al Beheiry, who held Mr. Mansour's position as head of the court as late as Sunday, said in an interview. "God be with him, it is a big responsibility."
Mr. Mansour's appointment as the head of the top court appears to have been the result of an annual wave of judicial retirements: By Egyptian law, any judge who turns 70 before the end of the judicial year—June 30—must retire at that time, according to Mr. El Beheiry.
So, Mr. El Beheiry said, his retirement on June 30 left the post to Mr. Mansour, who had been appointed to the deputy post in May.
As a judge, Mr. Mansour played a key role in several iconoclastic rulings—ones that went against Egypt's last two leaders, Hosni Mubarak and Mohammed Morsi alike—said Abdullah Fathi, the deputy head of the Judges' Club, a professional organization for judges that has leaned against the Brotherhood since Egypt's revolution.
"He is a pillar of the judiciary," said Mr. Fathi. "He is known in judicial circles for his integrity and his impartiality."
"He is a nationalist and cares about Egypt's well-being," he said. "His presence in this position is an advantage for Egypt, because he will run the country with the conscience of a judge."
Underlining Egypt's political instability, Mr. Mansour hasn't even been sworn in as the court's head, said Mr. Al Beheiry. He was supposed to take the oath Sunday, but the ceremony was delayed because of the nationwide protests.
"According to the constitution he was supposed to take the oath in front of the president, but now that it was suspended, the new revolutionary laws dictate that he will take his oath before the court," said Mr. Beheiry.
Mr. Mansour was appointed the head of the court by Mr. Morsi himself from among the three longest-serving deputies in the court, according to an article in the state-run newspaper Al Ahram. He graduated from Cairo University with a law degree in 1967 before acquiring a general law degree from the same school in 1969, and a management degree in 1970.
He studied management and public affairs in Paris on a scholarship, graduating in 1977. Afterward, he returned to Cairo where he climbed the ranks of Egypt's judicial system.
