​President Medina makes his mark in the Constitutional Court

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In Brief 31 Dec 2018 by Pavel Isa

---

President Medina has just left his mark in the Constitutional Court. As mandated by the Constitution, four of the thirteen judges that make up that court were replaced, and as expected, the new appointees changed the balance of power within the court. Although Medina did not manage to get full control of it since the replacement was less than one third of the enrollment, the new judges have significantly increased his influence, while reducing that from former President Leonel Fernández. The judges of the so-called High Courts (the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Justice and the Superior Electoral Court) are appointed by the National Council of Magistrates (CNM for its Spanish acronym), an organ chaired by the President of the Republic and whose composition makes him have a strong influence in its decisions. Until recently, Leonel Fernandez exerted a determining influence on the High Courts because he was the President in 2011 when judges for all of them were appointed by the CNM. However, as the deadlines for the replacement of judges during Medina's tenure have been met, he has made sure to change the balance in his favor. In mid-2017, the CNM replaced all the judges of the Superior Electoral Tribunal. On that occasion Medina managed to significantly reduce Fernandez’s influence and to increasing his, but in such a way that it was not perceived that it was a gross replacement of followers of Fernandez for his. Medina achieved an equilibrium of appointees: judges close to his group, and relatively independent ones. This shielded the designation from the harshest critics. In the case of the appointment of the new judges of the Constitutional Court, Medina fo...