Gov't delays publication of Constitutional Tribunal ruling

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza said on Friday that the head of the Chancellery of Prime Minister, Beata Kempa, suspended the publication of a Constitutional Tribunal verdict in the Journal of Laws, preventing it from coming into force. The Head of the Constitutional Tribunal, Andrzej Rzepliński, has confirmed that he had received a letter from Kempa, in which it says that the government suspends the publication, because the court's bench was not complete. The verdict was reached by five judges, and in Kempa's opinion, the matter was of extraordinary importance, therefore it should be ruled by a full bench. However, according to the law, only the constitutional court itself is capable of determining whether the matter has the aforementioned character. In her letter, Kempa said that the publication is withdrawn until Rzepliński takes a position on the letter. [UPDATE] On Friday afternoon, the head of the Constitutional Tribunal replied that the Constitution sees no exception to the rule that the tribunal's verdicts must be published. At a press conference later that day, Kempa said that Rzepliński's answer doesn't resolve doubts, but the verdict will published. According to her, the chancellery has 14 days to do so. The court ruled on December 3 that a paragraph of the amendment to the law on the Constitutional Tribunal, on the basis of which two out of five judges were elected in October, was not constitutional, while the choice of the remaining three is valid. The tribunal also said that the President, Andrzej Duda, had no right to refuse to swear them in. Instead, the President received oaths from five judges chosen by the Sejm with votes from PiS in November.