U.K. Supreme Court drama over Brexit

Johnson illegally shut down Parliament to dodge scrutiny of EU exit plans, his foes say.

LONDON — The government and its opponents faced off Tuesday in Britain’s Supreme Court in a high-stakes legal drama over Brexit that will determine whether new Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke the law by suspending Parliament at a crucial time ahead of the country’s impending departure from the European Union.

As pro-EU and proBrexit demonstrators exchanged shouts outside the courthouse at London’s Parliament Square, the government’s opponents argued that Johnson illegally shut down Parliament just weeks before the country is due to leave the 28-nation bloc, for the “improper purpose” of dodging lawmakers’ scrutiny of his Brexit plans. They also accused Johnson of misleading Queen Elizabeth II, whose formal approval was needed to suspend the legislature.

The government countered that, under Britain’s largely unwritten constitution, the suspension was a matter for politicians, not the courts.

Government lawyer Richard Keen said judges in a lower court had “nakedly entered the political arena” by ruling on the matter.

“The court is not equipped to decide what is a legitimate political consideration,” he said.

Johnson sent lawmakers home on Sept. 9 until Oct. 14, which is barely two weeks before the scheduled Oct. 31 Brexit deadline.

A ruling against the government by the country’s top court could force him to recall Parliament.

Johnson hasn’t said what he will do if the judges rule the suspension illegal. The prime minister told the BBC on Monday that he would “wait and see what they say.”

Keen promised that “the prime minister will take any necessary steps to comply with any declaration made by the court.” But he had no answer when judges asked whether Johnson might recall Parliament on the court’s order, only to suspend it again.

“I’m not in a position to comment on that,” he said.

Johnson says Britain must leave the EU at the end of next month with or without a divorce deal. But many lawmakers believe a no-deal Brexit would be economically devastating and socially destabilizing and are determined to thwart him.

Lawyer David Pannick, who represents one of the campaigners challenging the government, told 11 Supreme Court judges that Johnson had improperly suspended the legislature “to silence Parliament ... because he sees Parliament as an obstacle to the furtherance of his political aims.”