London — The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has declared Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s suspension of Parliament just weeks before the deadline for Britain to leave the European Union unlawful. Johnson was accused of suspending, or “proroguing” the legislature to limit the time lawmakers have to debate and intervene in his Brexit policy. He had insisted the prorogation was standard operating procedure for a new prime minister, and that it had nothing to do with the looming Brexit deadline.

Lady Hayle, President of the Supreme Court, said Tuesday that she and the other 10 justices had reached a unanimous decision that Johnson’s move to send the lawmakers home before such a monumental change in the nation’s trajectory was unlawful. Parliament, she said, “has a right to a voice in how that change comes about.”It was a devastating blow to Johnson, as the high court cleared the way for Parliament to reconvene immediately to resume debating his Brexit plans. The ruling by the 11 justices was in line with a previous decision by a Scottish court, which also found Johnson’s move to suspend parliament was illegal, and null and void.
“Parliament has not been prorogued. This is the unanimous decision of all 11 justices,” Lady Hale said. She noted the “quite exceptional circumstances” under which Johnson had attempted to suspend Parliament, and said the “effect on the fundamentals of our democracy was extreme.”Hayle said Johnson’s government had given “no justification” for the five-week suspension, which she noted would normally last just four to six days. The government, she said, failed to explain “why it was necessary to bring normal parliamentary business to a halt five weeks before” the Brexit deadline.What next?These are uncharted waters for both the United Kingdom and the EU; no nation has ever tried to extrapolate itself from the 28-nation bloc before, so it’s unclear what exactly will happen next.House of Commons Speaker John Bercow told journalists outside Parliament after the ruling that he had “instructed House authorities to undertake such steps as are necessary to ensure that the House of Commons sits tomorrow, and that it does so at 11:30 a.m.” Bercow’s position as speaker is ostensibly non-partisan, thought he has been accused by Brexiteers of trying to thwart the government’s plans to leave the EU by using his powers to set the schedule in the House of Commons. He said Tuesday that as soon as the Members of Parliament got back to work on Wednesday, “there will be full scope for urgent questions and ministerial statements, and for applications for emergency debates,” making it clear that no time would be wasted as the lawmakers work to express their political will — the will that the Supreme Court said they were unlawfully denied by Johnson for the last couple weeks. Johnson’s office said Tuesday that he would ignore mounting calls to step down from the premiership. He was also cutting short his trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly to return home overnight. That will get him back to London in time to face lawmakers’ questions in Parliament on Wednesday.