A new bill passed by the Polish government will require two-fifths of the country’s Supreme Court justices to retire–a move that threatens judicial independence and further slides the Central European country towards authoritarianism.
According to critics, the law is a ploy to oust judges on the court and replace them with more favorable selections chosen by the Polish president.
On top of that, the newly transformed Supreme Court will also be able to re-open 20-year-old cases at the request of the justice minister.
The new law doesn’t simply dictate that certain judges must retire, it uses a bit of slight of hand, changing the retirement age of justices from 70 to 65, which gets rid of 40% of the current chamber.
The right-wing Law and Justice party, which currently holds power in Poland, has made a habit of acting in an anti-democratic manner, including attempting to silence the press with hefty fines, turning the state media into a propaganda arm for their party, and launching xenophobic attacks left and right.
Now, they are attempting to replace a significant chunk of the Supreme Court with judge appointees that toe their party’s line.
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