Supreme Court Defies Constitutional Tribunal's Verdict, Reopens Case Vs Pardoned Minister

Poland's Supreme Court set aside a Warsaw district court's decision to discontinue a case against current Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his aides and ordered its resumption, in defiance of the recent verdict of the country's Constitutional Tribunal. The decision sets the scene for another high-level legal dispute that may shake the country's beleaguered judicial system.

• The case against Kaminski was dropped by the district court when President Andrzej Duda pardoned him in 2015, but that decision was appealed to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, lower house Speaker asked the Constitutional Tribunal to determine if the Supreme Court had the right to review the decision to drop the case.
• After several years during which there was no progress on the matter, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled last week that President Andrzej Duda had the right to pardon Kaminski and his decision cannot be questioned by the Supreme Court. This came after the Supreme Court scheduled a meeting on the case for today.
• Many legal experts have claimed that Duda misused his prerogative by pardoning Kaminski et al. before they exhausted the appeals process and before their sentences formally took effect. This is in line with the Supreme Court's binding legal opinion issued in 2017 in connection with the case.
• The Supreme Court said today that "the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling from Jun 2 on the competence dispute did not have any legal effect" due to a wrong "method of ruling" on the matter. It also reasserted the exclusive right of courts to exercise justice in Poland.
• This sets the stage for continued conflict between Poland's top courts amid already existing rule-of-law concerns. Note that President Andrzej Duda will deliver a special address to the nation tonight and he could comment on the matter.