The appointment of 2 CT judges not constitutional

The Constitutional Tribunal ruled on Thursday 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, while the choice of the remaining three is valid. The tribunal also said that the President, Andrzej Duda, had no right to refuse the swearing-in of the other three judges. Duda argued that, in his opinion, the choice of all five breached the Constiution, but the constitutional court reminded that the only body competent to decide whether an act is constitutional or not is the Constiutional Tribunal itself. In November, PiS and Kukiz' 15 annulled the appointment of all five judges who were 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. On Wednesday, the Sejm, with votes from Law and Justice (PiS), voted in five new Constitutional Tribunal judges presented by PiS. Wednesday's debate saw vehement protests from the opposition who accused PiS of violating the constitution. “This is not something that we got as a present. We had to fight for this,” said Henryka Krzywonos, a legendary figure of the Solidarity movement, while waving a copy of the Constitution. The five new judges appointed on Wednesday are Henryk Cioch, Lech Morawski, Mariusz Muszyński, Julia Przyłębska, and Piotr Pszczółkowski. They were sworn in by the president on Wednesday night.