Police called to Poland's Constitutional Tribunal as judges barred from budget session, quorum again broken

A second attempt at convening

On 14 July 2026, Poland's Constitutional Tribunal once again failed to hold its General Assembly of judges, a body required to approve the court's financial report for the previous year and its budget for 2027. The meeting, summoned by Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski, was the second attempt in three weeks; a previous session in late June also collapsed because of a lack of quorum.

The latest gathering was supposed to take place in a different hall than usual, according to media reports. Invitations had not been sent to four of the six judges elected by the Sejm in March who took their oath in parliament rather than before President Karol Nawrocki. Two of those four, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and Maciej Taborowski, were allowed into the building but only as guests without voting rights. The other two, Krystian Markiewicz and Marcin Dziurda, were physically barred by the director of the Tribunal's chancellery, Zofia Hoffman, and a security representative.

I could not enter the building of the Constitutional Tribunal for the assembly. In this situation, we had no choice but to notify the police.

Police and prosecutor on site

After being denied entry, judges Markiewicz and Dziurda called the police, who arrived at the Tribunal's al. Szucha address and took down the details of those responsible. Separately, a prosecutor from the National Prosecutor's Office, Andrzej Piaseczny, was present at the scene. Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek later stated that the prosecutor is part of a team set up to handle investigations involving the country's most important judicial institutions. Żurek said he assumed that "attempts were being made to prevent duly elected judges from participating in the assembly."

Inside, judges Korwin-Piotrowska and Taborowski formally objected to their guest-only status. Korwin-Piotrowska asked that the record reflect her position that they are "fully authorised sitting judges who not only have the right but also the duty to take part in the assembly."

Quorum collapse and mutual accusations

The two judges whose appointments are accepted by Święczkowski because they swore their oath before President Nawrocki, Magdalena Bentkowska and Dariusz Szostek, initially attended the session. When their motions to grant full rights to the excluded quartet were rejected, they walked out in solidarity. Their departure left only eight judges in the room (all of them elected during the Law and Justice government), below the statutory quorum of ten. Tribunal spokesperson Weronika Ścibor confirmed that the session could not be held "due to the breaking of the quorum and the departure of two judges from the room."

Prezes Święczkowski, speaking to Telewizja Republika, described the day's events as an attempt to "attack a constitutional state organ, that is the Constitutional Tribunal." Judge Szostek, however, stressed that the judges sought only a lawful composition: "We asked the president of the Tribunal to postpone the assembly to a date when the Tribunal is properly constituted and all other judges are allowed to take part."

This is an attack on a constitutional state organ, that is the Constitutional Tribunal.

A wider legitimacy crisis

The standoff is the latest chapter in a protracted conflict over the Tribunal's composition. In March 2026, the Sejm elected six new judges to fill the body up to its statutory fifteen. On 1 April, President Nawrocki administered the oath to Bentkowska and Szostek, who then took up their duties. The remaining four, Markiewicz, Dziurda, Korwin-Piotrowska and Taborowski, took an oath "before the president" in the Sejm on 9 April, a formula not recognised by Święczkowski. The president has refused to swear them in, citing their earlier involvement in rule-of-law activism during the PiS era. A seventh judge, Sławomir Patyra, elected on 11 June, has been waiting over a month for the president to schedule his oath; his term formally began on 29 June.

Today there is no Constitutional Tribunal. Even if there had been eight or twelve judges, had even one of the persons properly elected been missing because they were not let in, it would not have been a General Assembly.

On the day of the aborted assembly, three former Tribunal presidents, Marek Safjan, Jerzy Stępień and Andrzej Zoll, issued a joint statement warning that the prolonged crisis undermines Poland's authority and can be held up as evidence of the ineffectiveness of rule-of-law institutions. Zoll separately told Fakt that none of the Tribunal's decisions are valid if its composition is contested. The governing coalition, for its part, does not publish rulings issued by the Święczkowski-led Tribunal.

What comes next

With the 2027 budget unapproved and the General Assembly unable to reach quorum, the Tribunal faces operational uncertainty. All eyes are now on President Nawrocki, whose refusal to swear in four of the elected judges has paralysed the institution. Judge Patyra has written to the president requesting a date for his oath but has received no reply.

I wrote a letter to the president asking for a date when I could appear. I haven't received any answer yet.