Poland's Constitutional Tribunal Refuses to Recognize Four Judges
The escalating standoff sharpens an already unprecedented clash between Prime Minister Donald Tusk's government and key institutions still under the grip of allies loyal to the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration. What hangs in the balance is not merely the tribunal's composition — but the fundamental question of who holds the power to define constitutionality in Poland.
The four judges at the center of the dispute — Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Krystian Markiewicz, Maciej Taborowski, and Marcin Dziurda — were among six jurists elected by parliament last month to fill vacant seats on the 15-member bench.
The Oath Dispute
Polish law and the Constitution stipulate that judges elected by parliament must be formally sworn in before the president before taking office. Nawrocki, a PiS-aligned head of state, last week summoned only two of the six to the presidential palace — allowing them to take their oaths while pointedly shutting out the remaining four.
Nawrocki's chief of staff, Zbigniew Bogucki, defended the move, contending that only two additional judges were required to restore the tribunal's working quorum of 11, and citing "serious doubts" over the legality of the other four appointments. Nawrocki himself has alleged the Sejm may have breached its own procedural rules in electing them.
The government has firmly rejected that rationale, asserting that the president holds no constitutional authority to cherry-pick which parliament-elected judges may assume office.
The Alternative Ceremony
With repeated appeals to Nawrocki going unanswered, the four judges took matters into their own hands Thursday, convening an independent oath ceremony inside parliament. Before the Sejm speaker, a notary, and four former tribunal presidents, they administered their oaths — then proceeded directly to the tribunal building, accompanied by the two judges Nawrocki had already recognized.
Tribunal president Swieczkowski, however, barred them from taking up their posts.
"I cannot recognize them as judges of the Constitutional Tribunal because I have not been informed by the president that they took the oath before him," he told reporters. He dismissed the parliamentary ceremony as "a performance" and "a media spectacle" staged for political purposes.
The Government Strikes Back
The government's response was swift and pointed. Maciej Berek, a minister within the Prime Minister's office, argued that Swieczkowski had inadvertently undermined Nawrocki's own position by congratulating all six judges on their parliamentary election.
"By congratulating all six judges on their election, he confirmed that they were legally chosen," Berek said. "The president has usurped a power that does not exist in the Constitution."
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek indicated the government has a "plan B" should the four judges remain locked out, though he stopped short of revealing specifics. Earlier in the week, he had floated the possibility of establishing an alternative mechanism through which the judges could begin their duties.
The Constitutional Question
The legal crux of the crisis turns on whether the president's oath-administering role is purely ceremonial or carries genuine discretionary power to block appointments. The overwhelming consensus among constitutional scholars holds that once parliament has lawfully elected a judge, the president is constitutionally bound to receive that oath and cannot selectively obstruct the process.
Strikingly, that position has found support even among conservative legal voices aligned with PiS. The party itself last week suspended MP Krzysztof Szczucki after he publicly declared that Nawrocki had no legal basis to swear in only two of the six elected judges.
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