Scottish court rules Boris Johnson misled the Queen before suspending Parliament
Things just keep getting worse for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
After having already lost his first six parliamentary votes, he faced another defeat Wednesday, this time in the judiciary realm. Senior Scottish judges unanimously ruled that Johnson's suspension of Parliament earlier this month was unlawful on the basis that he misled Queen Elizabeth II, David Allen Green reports for The Financial Times. Green adds that the ruling that Johnson acted in "bad faith" was a "remarkable and unprecedented judgment" — indeed, this is reportedly the first time a court has found a prime minister to have misled the British Crown.
The Scottish court's decision differs from a previous one made by the High Court in London, which ruled that it could not review the legality of the suspension since it was a political matter. But Scotland has its own system of laws, and Green notes that Scottish judges have a lot more leeway when it comes to parliamentary prorogation. The U.K.'s Supreme Court will convene next week in London to hear appeals from both the Scottish and High court cases in an attempt to create one, overarching decision. Read more from David Allen Green at The Financial Times and on Twitter.
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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
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