President Javier Milei has upped the ante in his bid to fill out Argentina’s Supreme Court in his image, naming two new justices to the nation’s highest tribunal by decree and setting up a Senate showdown with opponents.
The move, announced Tuesday by the government as it attempted to move on from this month’s ‘Cryptogate’ scandal, was followed two days later by the rapid swearing-in of Judge Manuel García-Mansilla, one of Milei’s choices, as a new justice.
García-Mansilla had previously stated, on record, that he would not take up the position if he were named by decree.
The more controversial appointment, Federal Judge Ariel Lijo, 56, has yet to be formalised by the court’s authorities.
Lijo has faced multiple denunciations in the domestic court for corruption, conspiracy, money-laundering and illicit enrichment, among others. He has not been convicted of any such offence.
The appointments, for now, are temporary. In his decree, Milei said the two candidates will form part of the Supreme Court “until the end of the next legislative period” in November.
The Senate, which must approve Supreme Court appointments, has to deal with Milei’s nominations by the end of that month.
Abuse of authority
The President’s move to bypass the Senate and impose his choices has been widely condemned as an abuse of executive authority by critics.
Milei nominated Lijo, a federal judge, and García-Mansilla last year, but he has not won Senate approval for his selections. The upper house has not formally rejected the candidates and may still overturn the President’s decision.
The President’s office this week defended the decision to appoint “by decree on commission,” arguing that filling the two vacancies on the five-member panel is essential in order for the court to function properly.
It accused the Senate of choosing to “remain silent,” though constitutional experts argue the lack of approval to date represents a negative position.
Decree 137/2025, signed by President Milei and Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona and issued February 25, provided for the appointment of García-Mansilla and Lijo “on commission, and under the terms of article 99, paragraph 19 of the National Constitution,” said the government.
Sworn-in
García-Mansilla, 54, took the oath of office Thursday on the fourth floor of the building housing the Supreme Court in central Buenos Aires.
Watched on by Justices Carlos Rosenkranz, Ricardo Lorrenzetti and the tribunal’s president, Horacio Rosatti, the constitutional lawyer and dean of Austral University was sworn-in accompanied by the secretaries of the court.
The ceremony was organised at such short notice that García-Mansilla’s family was not present.
The nominee for the fifth vacancy, Lijo, faces a more uncertain future.
Rather than resign his current post as a federal judge, the head of Federal Criminal and Correction Court 4 has received approval from judicial authorities to request a leave of absence from his chamber.
This is because, should the Senate overturn Milei’s decree, he may wish to return to his current posting.
According to local media reports, the Supreme Court will deal with Lijo's request at its next scheduled meeting on Thursday, March 6. The justices are expected to approve the motion.
Following García-Mansilla's swearing-in, the Supreme Court now has four members – the number it had at the end of December when Juan Carlos Maqueda retired, leaving the tribunal with only three out of five members.
In an interview on Wednesday, Maqueda described Milei’s plan as for the nation’s highest tribunal as “on the verge of unconstitutionality.”
“I found the decree and the attitude of the Executive and the President to be horrible,” he added.
According to Maqueda, the article in the National Constitution cited by Milei, introduced after 1860, is for a framework that is “absolutely different to the current one.”
“In Argentina we live in democracy, but there is low institutional quality that we see in the abuse of decrees of necessity and urgency and vetoes,” he stated,
Both Lijo and García Masilla are expected to attend President Milei's state-of-the-nation speech at Congress on Friday night, marking the annual opening of congressional sessions.
The Casa Rosada is hoping to seat the nominees next to the three current members of the court, implying they are both already installed in their roles.
— Times
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