Anna Bator-Ciesielska, a justice of the District Court in Warsaw, has distinguished herself as another brave Polish judge. Judge Bator-Ciesielska referred questions to the EU Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the powers of the Minister of Justice and on the status of the new National Council of the Judiciary, the majority of whose members are now elected by politicians rather than by judges, as the Constitution dictates. The filing also asks whether rulings issued by the Supreme Court will be valid under European law if a representative of the new NCJ is involved in the process of assigning cases to the Supreme Court.

In Poland, the process of flouting and bending our Constitution has been on the rise for several years. The division of powers is being dismantled and the independent judiciary is being destroyed. Human rights are curtailed – former ambassadors write to POTUS

A deputy minister of justice resigns. His devoted helper dismissed from his job at the ministry. Judge of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court and employees of the neo-NCJ summoned to give explanations. Alerted prosecution office and disciplinary commissioners. The Piebiak scandal, which was the ‘PiS caste’ scandal as early as on Thursday, is spreading ever wider. The government is playing it down, but the opinion polls have moved

The Commission’s new Rule of Law package might trigger the greatest progress since the introduction of Article 7

Jerzy Zajadło writes: The situation is exceptionally grave – Law and Justice has aimed almost its entire arsenal at the justice system, but now has unsheathed one more weapon: administrative review of the substance of judicial verdicts. Professor and philosopher of law Jerzy Zajadło discusses the general context of the Polish Parliament’s refusal to carry out a verdict of the Supreme Administrative Court.

Awareness of the changes in the Polish judicial system implemented by the ruling party, Law and Justice, is growing both domestically and internationally.

On 3 July, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda visited Lwówek Śląski and gave a speech in which he criticized the activity of the Constitutional Tribunal, whose ruling from 2014 recognized the conformity of a gradual increase in the retirement age with the Polish Constitution.

For the second time in recent months, in June 2019 the Supreme Court referred preliminary questions to the European Court of Justice regarding disciplinary proceedings against judges. The most recent case involves judge Frąckowiak of the Poznań regional court.

Dorota Zabłudowska, a judge at the Gdańsk District Court, has penned an article for Euronews describing how her efforts in defence of an independent judiciary and the rule of law have led to harassment by officials of the ruling Law and Justice party.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has released its report titled “The Time of Trial”, based on interviews with judges in Poland who explain how changes by the Law and Justice-led government have impacted them in their work.