Egypt’s Supreme Court Suspends Operations Over Protests

The Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court has announced that it will indefinitely suspend all operations in the face of “pressures” by thousands of Islamist protesters rallying out front of the court.

The court was near a ruling on the status of the upper house of parliament, a move that would escalate the ongoing dispute with President Mohamed Morsi, who in a recent edict announced that the parliament could no longer be disbanded by the courts.

And while on the one hand this was presented as a reaction to protests, it is also seen as a form of protest against the Morsi edict itself, following several other national courts already announcing they were going to “strike” over the edict.

In addition to protecting parliament, the edict grants Morsi unchecked power until the constitution is put into place. Morsi has insisted that protecting parliament and the constitutional assembly were the primary goals of his effort, however, and with threats against them still looming large on the court’s docket, it is hard to dismiss this claim out of hand.