Legal Expert David Allen Green's Take On Supreme Court's Prorogation Ruling
24 September 2019, 11:50
Constitutional law expert David Allen Green explained to James O'Brien why the Supreme Court judges ruled against Boris Johnson - and what happens next.
The 11 justices of the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Boris Johnson's suspension of parliament was unlawful and is ruled void - meaning that parliament could reconvene straight away.
In a rare interview speaking after the judgement, Mr Green explained to LBC what it all meant.
He said: "It is an astonishing piece of legal work. All the more so that it is unanimous, which stands out most starkly.
"Nobody was expecting a unanimous verdict. If you asked me a month ago, we would have said prorogation is just one of those non-justicable things and an entirely political decision for the Prime Minister.
"But the genius of Dominic Cummings and Nikki Da Costa and the Number 10 operation have converted something that was inherently non-justicable to an 11-0 victory at the Supreme Court, just by their own tomfoolery."
Explaining their verdict, he continued: "What the court had to do first and foremost was to work out whether it was justicable. That means is it a question capable of a legal answer. That was the real difficulty as it was literally unprecedented.
"They worked out that there is a rule that they can adopt. That was that the government cannot ask for a prorogation unless it had a good reason.
"That is more or less what the Supreme Court has decided."
More to follow...
