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The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has declared that the suspension of the country’s parliament was unlawful.
In a ruling on Tuesday morning, president of the court, Lady Brenda Hale, who delivered the unanimous judgement of the 11 Supreme Court judges, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully to prorogue parliament.
“The decision to advise her Majesty to prorogue parliament was unlawful because it had the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification,” Supreme Court President Brenda Hale said.
The judgement is taken to mean that parliament can resume immediately, although Hale said “it is for parliament, and in particular the speaker and the lords speaker, to decide what to do next.”
Parliament was suspended from September 10 to October 14. The prorogation, as the British refer to the suspension, was approved by Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s politically neutral head of state, acting on the advice of the prime minister as she is required to do under the country’s complex, uncodified constitution.
Calls for Johnson to resign heightened immediately the ruling was handed down.