Lawyers have reacted with alarm to savage attacks from the press and politicians on the ‘activist judges’ who handed down yesterday’s landmark Brexit ruling.
The Daily Mail leads the way this morning with a page one splash featuring pictures of the trio - lord chief justice Lord Thomas, master of the rolls Sir Terence Etherton and Lord justice Sales - above the headline: ‘Enemies of the People’. The more sympathetic Mirror notes dryly that ‘Enemies of the People’ is the title of a film about murderous dictator Pol Pot.
The Mail report alludes to calls at Westminster for a review of the way senior judges are appointed, also quoting former justice minister Dominic Raab as saying an ‘unelected judiciary’ must not be allowed to ’thwart the wishes of the British public’.
In a fulminating full-page leader, the Mail concedes that ‘on a blinkered reading of statutes and such very few precedents as exist’, it is possible to argue the government does lack the authority to trigger Brexit without the authority of parliament.
But it adds: ‘Wouldn’t any judge of real stature (the late Lord Denning springs to mind) have picked a way through the dust-encrusted legal textbooks to see the wood for the trees and come down on the side of reason?’
The paper is not confident the Supreme Court will reverse the judgement, alleging that the judiciary is ‘so infested with Europhiles that judges disgracefully slow-handclapped and booed a pro-Brexit speech by Michael Gove at a legal dinner’ .
Reports in a similar vein appear elsewhere, with The Sun reporting that the judges have ‘overruled the nation’, and the Telegraph featuring the headline: ‘The judges versus the people’.
The Express, meanwhile, joins the Mail in probing the backgrounds of the trio - noting that Lord Thomas was a founding member of the European Law Institute. In early reports, the Mail described Etherton (pictured) as an ‘openly gay ex-Olympic fencer’, though this was later amended.
Ukip leadership hopeful Suzanne Evans suggested the ‘activist judges’ should be sacked.
The onslaught will renew fears over threats to legal independence in England and Wales, which were heightened recently when the emergence of a worrying trend was identified in a report from the International Bar Association. Among other things, that report raised concerns over political attacks on lawyers involved in military cases.
The Law Society has been among those warning that political attacks on lawyers risk undermining the independence of the legal profession, the rule of law and the separation of powers.
This latest furore prompted lawyers to take to social media in defence of the judiciary.
On Twitter Nigel Pascoe QC of Pump Court Chambers urged colleagues to ‘condemn hysterical attacks on the judiciary’, which are ‘far too serious to be ignored’.
‘This is getting completely out of hand,’ he said. ‘If The Daily Mail speaks of judges as enemies of the people, democracy is being undermined. Shame!’
Barrister blogger Matthew Scott tweeted: ‘We can deal with these judges. Dismiss 1000. Lock up 1000. The rest will do as they’re told. It works. #Turkey. #EnemiesofthePeople.’
Gazette columnist Joshua Rozenberg said on Facebook: ‘Its does these papers no credit that they are attacking the judges rather than their judgment.’
Brexit judges are ‘Enemies of the People’ – media onslaught follows article 50 ruling
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