Final Word from Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Pavel Rychetský was vice PM of the Czech government and justice minister until Aug. 5, 2003. The next day, Aug. 6, 2003, this consummate politician, who had no prior judicial experience, was appointed to the highest judicial position in the country, that of chief justice of the Constitutional Court. He explains this overnight leap from one branch of government to another by saying that the Constitutional Court needed his stabilizing hand. Rychetský is now part of a blistering media campaign against Pres. Miloš Zeman. Rychetský and a few other judges are using their official positions and their media access to suggest that Zeman will be threatening the independence of the judiciary and democracy itself if he doesn't appoint one of their brethren to head the Supreme Administrative Court. The argument would be much stronger if Rychetský resigned and said, "I am the best example anyone could ask for of how the judiciary should not be molded by the executive branch." [Czech Republic separation of powers division]