Stock Photo - 15 January 2019, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Karlsruhe: Susanne Baer (l-r), Judge of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, Stephan Harbarth, Chairman of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, Johannes Masing, Judge of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, and Gabriele Britz, Judge of the First Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court, sit on the bench during the oral hearing on the legality of Hartz IV sanctions before the Federal Constitutional Court. The Social Court in Gotha considers the practice according to which Hartz IV recipients are threatened with cuts in benefits if they do not fulfil their obligations to be unconstitutional. Therefore, it has submitted a case in Karlsruhe. The judgment is usually pronounced a few months after the trial. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa Pool/dpa. - Karlsruhe/Baden-Wuerttemberg/Germany