Argentina's President Milei appoints judges in the Supreme Court by decree, ignoring Congress

Argentina’s President Javier Milei selected two Supreme Court judges by decree on Tuesday, bypassing Congress during its summer holiday to advance a particularly contentious candidate in a move seen as an abuse of executive power.

The president’s administration stated that it was Milei’s constitutional authority to fill the two vacancies on the five-member panel out of convenience and expediency. Argentina’s Supreme Court “cannot carry out its normal role with only three justices,” the statement continued.

Milei’s nominations of federal judge Ariel Lijo and lawyer Manuel García-Mansilla last year failed to get confirmation in the Senate, where his libertarian coalition holds only seven of 72 members. The Senate did not reject the nominees outright.

“The Senate chose to remain silent” even though “the suitability of the candidates for the position was demonstrated,” Milei’s office stated on Tuesday.

However, politicians and authorities have questioned the competence of federal judge Lijo, who has been charged with conspiracy, money laundering, and illegal enrichment, as well as being investigated for more ethical infractions than virtually any other judge in the history of his court.

Milei’s move was criticised by Human Rights Watch as “one of the most serious attacks against the independence of the Supreme Court in Argentina since the return of democracy.”

“President Milei cannot pretend to evade institutional mechanisms simply because he has not obtained the necessary Senate votes to appoint his candidates,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at the New York-based watchdog.

The nomination of a judge who hails from Argentina’s entrenched political elite took Milei’s supporters by surprise last year. A political outsider who railed against the corrupt establishment and campaigned on a platform of radical change, Milei came to power in 2023 by tapping into voters’ outrage over the alleged decadence and economic mismanagement of his leftist predecessors.

The appointments, made days before Congress reconvenes from its summer recess, are temporary — the judges’ terms expire at the end of the next congressional session on Nov. 30. After that, Lijo and García-Mansilla must secure Senate approval to stay on the bench.

Nonetheless, critics took issue with what they saw as a bare-knuckled strategy to pack the highest court with loyalists, saying that a president has only limited power to make judicial appointments during a congressional recess.

“The decrees are for restrictive use and cannot be used as a mere alternative to the regular procedures provided for by the constitution,” said constitutional lawyer Andrés Gil Domínguez.

When they are used for other purposes, he added, “the constitutional order and the rights of the people are in serious danger.”