By Vanessa Gera, The Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland ’ Poles protested in cities and towns across Poland for the eighth day Sunday over new rules passed by the ruling party that would drastically limit the independence of the judiciary. Protesters see moves by the populist governing Law and Justice party as an assault on the country's democratic system of checks and balances, accusing party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski of behaving in an authoritarian way to cement his power. * U.S. urges Poland to ensure constitution not violated

* Polish premier says will not give into pressure (Releads with Senate voting)

WARSAW, July 22 (Reuters) - Poland's upper house of parliament on Saturday approved a Supreme Court overhaul, defying the European Union and critics at home who say the legislation would undermine democratic checks and balances. Now President Andrzej Duda is to decide whether to sign the bill, veto it - as the opposition and protesters demand - or send it to the Constitutional Tribunal, which PiS overhauled last year, drawing domestic opposition and criticism from the European Union. People chanted slogans, including “Constitution!” and “Freedom, Equality, Democracy!” Protests also took place in Krakow, Wroclaw and other Polish cities, with smaller protests in Paris, Brussels, London and elsewhere in Europe. The PiS remains broadly popular among its electorate, despite an upswelling of protest in recent days as it rushed the judiciary overhaul through parliament. One element of the law on the Supreme Court would call for the immediate dismissal of all the Supreme Court's judges, with their replacements to be chosen by the justice minister, who is also the prosecutor general. But the moves to take control of the courts have alarmed the European Union, with Frans Timmermans, the vice-president of the EU's executive, warning last week that Brussels is very close to taking steps to strip Poland of its voting rights in the bloc over rule of law violations.
Poles march against a bill that critics say might decrease judicial independence in Poland. Hungary has supported the bill while the European Union has opposed it. The protesters hope that the President Andrzej Duda would intervene against the proposed law.