BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina’s senate on Thursday rejected the two Supreme Court candidates that President Javier Milei nominated by decree earlier this year, dealing a major blow to the libertarian leader.
The congressional defeat could complicate the implementation of Milei’s radical state overhaul of Argentina, as analysts say the president had hoped to fill the Supreme Court vacancies with appointees who would rule favorably on challenges to his economic reforms.
Milei in February bypassed Congress to appoint two controversial Supreme Court candidates, invoking a clause in Argentina’s constitution that he said empowered him to fill the vacant seats during the legislature’s summer recess.
Politicians sharply criticized the move as an overreach of executive power, saying that a president has extremely limited authority to make judicial appointments during a congressional break.
“It’s a serious institutional conflict that the executive branch has initiated against the legislative and judicial branches,” said Sen. Anabel Fernández Sagasti from Unión por la Patria party, the hardline opposition bloc. “What we are discussing is an institutional assault.”
Both of Milei’s candidates — federal judge Ariel Lijo and conservative law professor Manuel García-Mansilla — had failed last year to secure the two-thirds majority required to confirm the candidates in the senate, where the president’s libertarian coalition holds just seven of the 72 seats.
Milei resorted to presidential decree to fill the two vacant seats on the five-judge court, testing the boundaries of his executive power as he has repeatedly done over the past year to overcome his minority in Congress.
He’s just not any kind of libertarian. He’s the head of state and supports a lot of strong and unnecessary interventions into people’s lives. As well as power grabs like the one in the article.
Most people who regularly, openly identity as Libertarian aren’t.
Very true. I consider myself one but I don’t usually share that since people will get the wrong idea.
Can you tell us your take on this piece?
The piece or the events upon which it’s based?
I think Freetown Grafton it was an interesting experiment though obviously poorly organized and underpinned by wacky people with an excessively individualistic idea of how human society should work, which predictably led to many problems.
It’s important to note that the core ideological thread of libertarianism is liberty. That is, opposing domination and coercion of people by others. These other ideas the modern American libertarian movement has grafted on about individualism and capitalism really aren’t that closely related to that core concept, and in some ways are in tension with them. It’s fully possible to be an anti-capitalist libertarian who believes that humans need to work together to solve problems. That is my position, and my hope is that with more rigorous planning and cooperation, a society where state coercion is minimal or absent is possible. But it would require a less coercive form of social organization to take on the services currently offered by the government.
In my view, this should happen first before attempting to completely overthrow or dismantle government. This is one of the mistakes made by the Grafton libertarians. That said, there are some institutions like the military or prison systems that are so harmful that I think it’s justified to fight against them even without a clear alternative in place.
But I still think it’s good to see people experimenting with alternative social arrangements so we can gather evidence on what works and what doesn’t. The results weren’t great, but neither were they so catastrophic as to not be worth the attempt and information gained from it. In contrast we see many horrific failures and abuses of government power all around us, but people fail to question the foundations of that power, despite these dire consequences.
Little l Dejacque libertarian?
Yes, more so in this tradition though I have significant differences of opinion from him as well.