The Constitutional Court determines a new procedure for dec…

Decision published in the official gazette

The Constitutional Court published a decision “On the procedure for resolving rejections at the application review stage” in the official gazette “Latvijas Vēstnesis” No. 199 on October 15, 2026. The publication is included in the “Constitutional Institutions” section of the edition and has been assigned the official reference OP 2026/199, No. 1. The decision concerns the procedure by which the court resolves rejections at the application review stage.

What changes at the application review stage

The title of the decision indicates that the court has established the procedure for resolving rejections at the application review stage – the phase in which the submitted application is evaluated before the case is initiated. The procedure for resolving rejections directly affects the procedural opportunities of every constitutional complaint applicant. The full text of the decision is available in the official gazette under reference OP 2026/199, No. 1.

Flow of Constitutional Court decisions in autumn 2026

The Constitutional Court’s notices in the official gazette were published regularly in the autumn of 2026. Since mid-August, the following court documents have been included in the edition:

August 21, 2026, No. 160 (OP 2026/160) – information on the initiation of case No. 2026-13-01.
August 25, 2026, No. 162 (OP 2026/162) – information on the initiation of case No. 2026-14-01.
September 2, 2026, No. 168 (OP 2026/168) – information on the initiation of case No. 2026-15-0103.
September 10, 2026, No. 174 (OP 2026/174) – decision of the action session in case No. 2024-01-01.
September 25, 2026, No. 185 (OP 2026/185) – information on the initiation of case No. 2026-16-0103.
September 29, 2026, No. 187 (OP 2026/187) – judgment on the compliance of Paragraph 4 of Article 6 of the Psychologists Law with the first sentence of Article 106 of the Constitution.
October 2, 2026, No. 190 (OP 2026/190) – judgment on the compliance of Point 2 of the first part of Article 4 and Point 2 of the first part and Part 2.1 of Article 5 of the Law on Discharge of Debt Obligations of Natural Persons with Article 1 and the first three sentences of Article 105 of the Constitution.

Why this is important for applicants

The procedure for resolving rejections is a procedural matter that determines how predictably and transparently an applicant can expect a response even before the case is initiated. If the procedure is changed, the court’s working practice also changes, as well as how quickly and with what justification applications are rejected. The decision was published in the same issue as the binding regulations of local governments and official notices; thus, it is available to any interested party without additional access.

Official source

Publication: “Latvijas Vēstnesis”, October 15, 2026, No. 199.
Official reference: OP 2026/199, No. 1.
Section: Constitutional institutions – Constitutional Court.
Document title: “On the procedure for deciding on rejection at the application review stage” (Decision of the Constitutional Court).
Publication address: https://www.vestnesis.lv/url/17001?content=1

The decision affects anyone who applies to the Constitutional Court with a constitutional complaint, as it determines the procedure for deciding on a rejection already at the application review stage. Since the application review stage is the first hurdle on the way to initiating a case, changes to this procedure determine how accessible constitutional litigation will be in the future.