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UK court will not rule on Monday morning on PM Johnson's suspension of parliament

The Supreme Court will not rule on Monday morning on prime minister Boris Johnson's suspension of parliament but will update on timings later on Monday, a court spokeswoman said on Sunday.

"The hand-down for the following cases: R (on the application of Miller) (Appellant) v The Prime Minister (Respondent), Cherry and others (Respondents) v Advocate General for Scotland (Appellant) UKSC 2019/0193, will not happen tomorrow (Monday) morning," a spokeswoman said.

"I hope to make an update on timing around lunchtime tomorrow," she said.

Only in existence since 2009, the Supreme Court and its unashamedly feminist president Brenda Hale, 74, are to rule sometime this week on the constitutional crisis engulfing Britain over its torturous, mooted departure from the European Union.

Specifically, the nation's top court is to decide whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson acted unlawfully by asking Queen Elizabeth to suspend parliament for five weeks in order, as foes allege, to sidestep opposition to his Brexit-or-die agenda.

Never in its short history has the Supreme Court weighed such a momentous case. And never have Britons been treated to so many modern trappings at a core establishment institution.

Unlike other British courts, Hale and her fellow judges do not wear wigs nor do they sit in an elevated position.

While TV cameras are barred from nearly all other tribunals, the Supreme Court's live stream on the first day of the hearing over Johnson was accessed on its website more than 4 million times.

"We will have to decide what the answer is and we will have to decide in one way or another what the consequences of that answer is," Hale told the court of a matter throwing British politics and society into turmoil.

"None of this is easy."

As well as having a major impact on how Brexit plays out with an Oct. 31 divorce deadline looming, the court's ruling could be a pivotal determination on the future balance of power between Britain's government and parliament.