Scottish court rules Boris Johnson misled the Queen before suspending Parliament


Things just keep getting worse for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
After having already lost his first six parliamentary votes, he faced another defeat Wednesday, this time in the judiciary realm. Senior Scottish judges unanimously ruled that Johnson's suspension of Parliament earlier this month was unlawful on the basis that he misled Queen Elizabeth II, David Allen Green reports for The Financial Times. Green adds that the ruling that Johnson acted in "bad faith" was a "remarkable and unprecedented judgment" — indeed, this is reportedly the first time a court has found a prime minister to have misled the British Crown.
The Scottish court's decision differs from a previous one made by the High Court in London, which ruled that it could not review the legality of the suspension since it was a political matter. But Scotland has its own system of laws, and Green notes that Scottish judges have a lot more leeway when it comes to parliamentary prorogation. The U.K.'s Supreme Court will convene next week in London to hear appeals from both the Scottish and High court cases in an attempt to create one, overarching decision. Read more from David Allen Green at The Financial Times and on Twitter.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
News organizations reject Pentagon restrictions
Speed Read The proposed policy is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s latest move to limit press access at the Pentagon
-
Trump declares end to Gaza war, ‘dawn’ of new Mideast
Speed Read Hamas freed the final 20 living Israeli hostages and Israel released thousands of Palestinian detainees
-
Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s Iron Lady set to be the country’s first woman prime minister
In the Spotlight Takaichi is a member of Japan’s conservative, nationalist Liberal Democratic Party
-
Gold tops $4K per ounce, signaling financial unease
Speed Read Investors are worried about President Donald Trump’s trade war
-
Electronic Arts to go private in record $55B deal
speed read The video game giant is behind ‘The Sims’ and ‘Madden NFL’
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fine
Speed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in Intel
Speed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to China
Speed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with Disney
Speed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance