BANGKOK - As an ashen-faced Paetongtarn Shinawatra breezed past waiting reporters after a July 1 Cabinet briefing just hours before a constitutional court decision that temporarily suspended her from office, her influential father, Thaksin Shinawatra, also opted to keep a low profile while arriving for his separate court hearings over charges of royal defamation around the same time.

The concurrent legal challenges facing both father and daughter portend not just a symbolic turning point for the immediate future of Thailand’s government, but also the longer-term fortunes of the country’s most prominent political family and its one-time electoral powerhouse Pheu Thai Party.