Boris Johnson’s Parliament Suspension to Get Early Test in Two Courts

(Bloomberg) --

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament will get an early test Friday as two courts could rule on challenges from Brexit opponents who say the decision is an affront to democracy.

A judge in Edinburgh, Scotland, will rule Friday morning on a request for an emergency injunction to block the so-called prorogation of Parliament. In Belfast, Northern Ireland, another court will hear arguments in a similar case.

Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament in the run up to the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline has unleashed a wave of opposition from lawmakers who say the move will make a no-deal split from the European Union more likely. Three lawsuits are pending around the country that attack different aspects of the plan.

“It’s a misuse of prerogative power to bypass Parliament,” said Gina Miller, a businesswoman who filed a case in London. “Nothing like this has ever been tested in court.”

The length of the suspension appeared to blindside lawmakers, with Johnson framing the plan as part of the normal course of government business. It’s set to last from Sept. 12 until the Queen’s Speech on Oct. 14, leaving little time for debate before the deadline the prime minister has set for the U.K. to leave the EU with or without a deal.

While the initial rulings will give a sense of the judges’ reactions to the legal issues involved, they will by no means be the last word.

In Edinburgh on Thursday, an attorney representing the government pushed against an emergency injunction, arguing that there’s ample time for courts to review the issue before Sept. 12.

Before a full hearing next week, “what utility is there in making any order?” Roddy Dunlop, the U.K.’s lawyer, asked the court. “Nothing can happen. There is no good reason for hearing it now.”

The cases are likely to end up in front of the U.K. Supreme Court, which may have to cut its traditional summer break to review the matter.

But Aidan O’Neill, the lawyer for lawmakers opposed to a no-deal Brexit, told the hearing in Edinburgh that the suspension curtails Parliament’s ability to hold the government to account.

“The constitution may not be altered into an arbitrary despotic power by the advice of evil and wicked counselors,” O’Neill said, reading from the Scottish Claim of Right from 1689. “One doesn’t wish to make too many parallels with what is happening in the 17th century and yesterday, but sometimes it’s just too tempting,” he said.

In Belfast, Raymond McCord, who’s filed multiple cases over the relationship between Brexit and the Good Friday Agreement, argues suspending the legislature breaches the 1998 peace deal.

“The delicate constitutional balance which has thus far been achieved will be destroyed,” McCord’s lawyer, Ciaran O’Hare, said after a preliminary hearing Thursday. He said the court could rule following another session Friday.

Miller, who won an earlier case giving Parliament more scrutiny of Brexit, said she hoped a preliminary hearing could be scheduled in her case next week.

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