Yes, cowardice is a very good word for what the government has allowed to happen.
The function of government is to create the laws. If a judge interprets a law in a way that the government did not mean for it to be interpreted, it takes only a matter of a day or so in this supposed Chamber to change the law so it can no longer be interpreted in that way. However, the government, in its cowardly acts, decided it would not do that because it might be controversial and it did not want to take any type of heat in case it impacted upon it in a coming election.