Argentina's Milei skirts Congress to seat a divisive judge in the Supreme Court

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's President Javier Milei temporarily appointed two Supreme Court judges by decree Tuesday, bypassing Congress during its summer recess to push through a particularly controversial candidate in a move criticized as an overreach of executive power.

The president's office said it was within Milei's constitutional right to fill the two vacancies on the five-member panel as a matter of convenience and expediency. Argentina's top court “cannot carry out its normal role with only three justices," the statement added.

Milei nominated federal judge Ariel Lijo and lawyer Manuel García-Mansilla last year but struggled to get approval in the Senate, where his libertarian coalition controls just seven of the 72 seats. The Senate did not reject the candidates outright, either.

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

But lawmakers and officials have questioned the suitability of federal judge Lijo, who has been accused of conspiracy, money laundering and illicit enrichment, and has come under scrutiny for more ethics violations than almost any other judge in his court’s history.

Human Rights Watch criticized Milei's move 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 the institutional mechanisms simply because he has not obtained the necessary votes in the Senate 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.”