Supreme Court justice Manuel García-Mansilla has put an end to speculation over his continuation on the nation’s highest court by presenting his resignation.
The decision comes four days after the justice's nomination for the Supreme Court was rejected by the Senate by a more than the two-thirds majority required for approval. Senators voted 51 votes against, with 20 in favour.
García-Mansilla, 54, served on the nation’s highest tribunal “in commission,” after being controversially appointed via a decree issued by President Javier Milei on February 26. He was sworn-in as a Supreme Court justice the following day.
Milei’s unilateral move to impose García-Mansilla and another nominee, Federal Judge Ariel Lijo, on the Supreme Court was fiercely criticised by constitutional experts and the opposition.
Last Thursday, the Senate overwhelmingly rejected the appointment of both justices, voting by a large majority to reject the nominations, which were first sent to the upper house in 2024.
García-Mansilla’s decision to resign ends speculation over his continuation on the Supreme Court. Legal experts had warned that his decisions and rulings could be challenged by plaintiffs.
"I am writing to you in order to present my indeclinable resignation from the position of judge of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation to which I was appointed, in commission, by Decree 137 of February 26, 2025,″ said García-Mansilla in his resignation letter addressed to President Milei and Argentina’s Justice Ministry.
He said his decision to join the court was based on “‘the conviction that the lack of integration of the Supreme Court was a serious institutional problem requiring an urgent solution.”
García-Mansilla’s stint as a Supreme Court justice lasted just 39 days.
According to reports, the Milei administration initially wanted the magistrate to remain in situ until the end of legislative sessions in November but García-Mansilla decided over the weekend to resign.
His position on the court had already become subject to legal challenges. La Plata Federal Judge Alejo Ramos Padilla last week issued an injunction preventing the outgoing justice from issuing rulings and taking administrative decisions for an initial three months, under threat of “criminal and/or financial sanctions.”
García-Mansilla’s departure means that the Supreme Court now has three of its five benches filled. Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Ricardo Lorenzetti are currently serving on the court.
The departing justice commented in his resignation letter that the Supreme Court is suffering from “judicial paralysis.”
He said the vacancies needed to be “filled without delay,” cautioning against the “false belief that the Supreme Court can function with only three judges.”
This, said García-Mansilla, is an “institutional mirage” which could cause “greater damage” to the court in the long term.
"The functioning of the bench is far from ideal. Cases are resolved, yes, but not in the quantity and at the pace required by the [Supreme] Court," he said.
That lentitude “concretely affects the activity of the Court and, fundamentally, the lives of our fellow-citizens, who see the resolution of the disputes they submit to its decision delayed,” said García-Mansilla.
– TIMES/NA
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