Apparently one Court of Appeal judge refused to stand up
Liz Truss has now been made an honorary bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, four and a half months after the ceremony was postponed indefinitely. She will join approximately 60 other Lincoln’s Inn honoraries, including US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, land law textbook guru Martin Dixon and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
Readers may recall that back in November Truss’ moment of bencher glory was put on hold. It’s convention for all Lord Chancellors to be given the symbolic title either at Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn, Inner Temple or Middle Temple, so eyebrow raises were aplenty at the time.
Though Lincoln’s Inn gave no reason for the decision, it’s worth noting the postponement’s timing. It came less than two weeks after Truss failed to condemn tabloid newspaper attacks on the High Court judges involved in the Article 50/Gina Miller litigation.
Now, it seems Truss and the Inn have reconciled their differences. The Justice Secretary was introduced to the Inn by President of the Supreme Court Lord Neuberger yesterday lunchtime. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said:
The Secretary of State received a warm welcome at the event.
With the ceremony now having gone ahead, it seems the whole ‘enemies of the people’ hoo-ha has been put to bed — or has it?
For starters, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas doesn’t seem to be over it. His brutal Truss-directed attack — where he described her High Court judges/media view as “completely and utterly wrong” — was less than two weeks ago. And then take a look at this tweet from Enterprise Chambers barrister Linden Ife:
Liz (Enemies of the People) Truss introduced to Lincoln's Inn Hall as Honorary Bencher today. One Court of Appeal judge refused to stand up.
— Linden Ife (@lindenife) April 3, 2017
Oh dear.
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