Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Poles Protest Judicial Reform

by VOA News

   Polish Supreme Court First President Malgorzata Gersdorf showed up for
   work Wednesday, defying a new law forcing her retirement.

   Gersdorf thanked a crowd of protesters who gathered to demonstrate
   outside the Supreme Court and said she was there to protect the rule of
   law.

   Under the new law that lowers the mandatory retirement age for
   justices, more than a third of Supreme Court justices will be forced
   into retirement Wednesday.

   Opponents say the law is an attempt by the government to take over the
   courts. The government says changes to the judiciary are necessary,
   saying many of the rules date back to the days of communism.

   Thousands of people waving Polish and European Union flags and shouting
   slogans demanding free courts demonstrated in Warsaw and other Polish
   cities on Tuesday.

   Gersdorf, a strong critic of the ruling conservative Law and Justice
   Party was among those rallying Tuesday. She calls the law a "purge
   conducted in the Supreme Court ... under the pretext of the
   retrospective change in retirement age."

   Gersdorf refused to apply for an extension, saying the constitution
   allows her to stay on the bench until 2020.

   Nobel Prize-winning Solidarity founder Lech Walesa said he would be
   among those marching Wednesday, saying he is ready to "lead a physical
   removal of the main perpetrator of all misfortune" -- a reference to
   Law and Justice party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

   Walesa did not elaborate on what he meant by "physical removal."