Pis amendments to Constitutional Tribunal ruled unconstitutional

On Wednesday, The Constitutional Tribunal ruled that some of the amendments to the law passed by the ruling party PiS in November related to the Constitutional Tribunal are unconstitutional, further exacerbating the crisis into which Poland had recently plunged. The constitutional court said that the shortening of the term of the head and deputy head of the Tribunal was illegal. The court also said that the beginning of a judge's term in office cannot be dependent on the swearing-in by the president. As a result, the Constitutional Tribunal confirmed that the choice of three judges by parliament in October is valid and PiS had no right to choose the another three to replace them in November. The issue concerning the Constitutional Tribunal has been dragging on for more than two weeks. In November, PiS and Kukiz' 15 passed a new bill on the Constitutional Tribunal, on the basis of which it had annulled the appointment of all five judges chosen by the previous parliament in October. PiS argued that two of them had been nominated prematurely to replace judges whose terms were due to end in December. Last week, the Sejm, with votes from Law and Justice (PiS), voted in five new Constitutional Tribunal judges presented by PiS. The following day, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that a paragraph of the amendment to the law on the Constitutional Tribunal, adopted by the Sejm in June on the basis of which two out of five judges were elected in October, was not constitutional. The choice of the remaining three has been ruled valid. Thus, the Constitutional Tribunal obliged the president to swear them in. However, the President had refused do to so. Instead he received oaths from all five judges chosen by PiS in November.