Groucho Marx turned "Ladies and gentlemen, those are my principles. And, if you don't like them... well, I've got others" into his most famous quote; now, this Thursday, the rebel judges in Spain's Constitutional Court who disagreed with the court's verdict on a prison punishment for political prisoners Jordi Sànchez have said something similar: "Ladies and gentlemen, those are my verdicts. If you don't like them... well, I've got others". There's no other way to see the clumsy move (certainly unavoidable, in view of the ridicule it means for them) to correct their evaluation. To put it plainly, they've withdrawn one of the reasons behind their dissenting opinion, claiming it wasn't their intention, nor did it respond to the subject of the plenary's deliberations and that they had signed by mistake. They've taken several days to realise their supposed error, during which they've had to put up with severe criticism in Madrid for the position they'd taken.
Although it's not a central question in the many resolutions the Constitutional Court has had to adopt over the Catalan independence movement, it is important since it affects basic rights. In short, the judges behind the dissenting vote had criticised the court's majority for dismissing Jordi Sànchez's appeal with respect to the month-long punishment he was given at the start of his time in prison over a technical error, namely that it had been presented late, and for not considering the matter itself. This dissenting vote, from judges Fernando Valdés, Juan Antonio Xiol and María Luisa Balaguer caused surprise, because the unity the members of the Constitutional Court uphold in any matter affecting the pro-independence prisoners had been broken. Also, for the fact that Valdés was the reporting judge for the appeal and Xiol is one of the candidates whose name crops up most to become the new president of the court.
Now, the correction is so senseless it shows the court for what it is and logically acts as a visualisation of the political-legal forces ready to shield as far as possible against any discrepancy. It also gives some clues as to what they must be concocting a few hundred metres away, in the Supreme Court, with the sentence it'll issue after 11th September, probably in October, on the Catalan political prisoners. Pedro Sánchez's government, closed off to any dialogue with independence supporters which could trouble the start of the legislature and, who knows, even prepared to reach an agreement with Ciudadanos if Pablo Iglesias gets too annoying; the Moncloa government palace acting as an essential piece on the board for Colau to remain at the head of Barcelona city council and, thirdly, a hard line with the state's two horses in the trial, the public prosecution service and the state's solicitors. The deep state has brought out all its big guns.