One tragedy in Poland’s gathering constitutional crisis is that it reveals the degree to which the right-wing leaders there don’t get the basics of democracy. In openly defying a ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal, the Polish high court, the ruling Law and Justice Party effectively set itself above the law in its march to authoritarian rule, ignoring all appeals, warnings and formal opinions from the United States, the European Union, international human rights organizations and its own opposition.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party’s leader and the power behind the government’s nationalist, conservative agenda, actually compared the foreign appeals to Soviet intervention of the Communist era. This crisis is evidence of Mr. Kaczynski’s illiberal view of democracy — shared with his friend, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary — as license for a majority to ride roughshod over any institutional checks and balances, whether internal or inherent in E.U. membership.

The current conflict began in October when the previous government, about to lose to Law and Justice in national elections, named five judges to the 15-judge Constitutional Tribunal, though there were only three immediate openings. The incoming government refused to seat them and named five new judges of its own. The court ruled that three of the judges proposed by the previous government were properly appointed, but Law and Justice paid no heed. Instead, the new Parliament passed a law that would weaken the court, requiring, for example, a two-thirds majority for a decision to be binding. Last Wednesday, the Constitutional Tribunal struck down the legislation as unconstitutional. But the government effectively dismissed the ruling.

On Friday, a special panel of the Council of Europe — the Continent’s rights organization — issued a report saying that the Polish government’s efforts to change the high court would “endanger not only the rule of law but also the functioning of the democratic system.” But the Warsaw government remained defiant, saying only that it would send the opinion to the legislature for study.