Czech Senator wants Constitutional Court to review ordinance about "sitting in public"

News server iDNES.cz reports that Czech Senator Václav Láska is planning to bring the town of Rotava before the Constitutional Court over its ordinance restricting "sitting in public" in some parts of its territory. "The expert opinion I have commissioned says the ordinance is not constitutional. The problem is that it is endeavoring achieve an aim other than its stated aim. The restrictions concern just certain sections of the town without any logical reason as to why they should apply to that particular area," he explained.

According to Láska, a verdict from the Constitutional Court could serve as a precedent and other municipalities that have adopted similar ordinances would have to be guided by it. Recently the towns of Bílina and Most have adopted such ordinances, while a similar one was adopted in March by the town of Duchcov, Krupka has had one in effect since 2012, and Litvínov and Rotava have had them on the books since 2010.

Several activists, constitutional law experts and politicians, like the Senator, are of the opinion that such ordinances are discriminatory because they target particular population groups specifically, usually Romani people. The Romane Kale Panthera group recently gave a performance to draw attention to the absurdity of the ordinance in Duchcov in a local park and produced a video about the police intervention in response to their "happening".