Baxa sticks his neck out for Pavel
Unlike Pres. Petr Pavel, who lends his name to dozens of events each year and has a dedicated website for taking applications, Chief Justice Josef Baxa of the Constitutional Court doesn't risk becoming tied to any event that might compromise his impartiality. Until now. In his preliminary injunction on Wed., Baxa essentially vouched for Pavel's behavior at the Nato summit. Baxa stated that allowing Pavel to go under such provisional terms wouldn't constitute an excessive infringement upon the government's constitutional status as the supreme body of the executive branch. This would indeed be true if Pavel kept to his vow to abide by the mandate he is given, but he has repeatedly used international opportunities to admonish the coalition. He told Christiane Amanpour of CNN, for example, that he has lots of debates with the Babiš government about behaving more responsibly on defense. Such a comment in Ankara could come back to haunt Baxa and his Court. But Pavel is clever. He'll probably behave well in Turkey and then wait until after the Court makes its final ruling in his favor to tell the world what he really thinks of the Babiš government.
Glossary of difficult words
to stick one's neck out for someone - to take a personal risk, to expose oneself to danger or to assume responsibility to help, support or defend another person;
dedicated - exclusively allocated to or intended for a particular purpose;
preliminary injunction - a temporary court order that forces a party to do or stop doing a specific action while a lawsuit is ongoing;
to vouch for - to confirm the identity or good character of (someone);
infringement - the action of limiting or undermining something;
to abide by - to accept or act in accordance with (a rule, decision or recommendation);
to admonish - to reprimand firmly;
to come back to haunt someone - to cause problems for someone in the future as a consequence of a past mistake, decision or action.