At the end of 2019, the Constitutional Court (CC) outlined a roadmap for the nominating committee process to continue. However, it seemed to have stalled again at the beginning of January due to not having the final judicial evaluation scores.

You can find details of the process in The ABCs of Nominating Committees.

While the committees have received less coverage and their actions have not been as widely publicized as last year, this is precisely because their work has been less intense. In December, attention was particularly focused on the interviews of the Judicial Career Council (CCJ).

Now, in 2020, the million-dollar question is, when will we have Supreme Court and Appeals Court Justices?

The deadline for Judicial Career Council evaluations

We know what procedure the CC specified in files 6528 – 2019. However, some deadlines have been shortened in practice. For example, the CCJ was supposed to carry out judge evaluations in a maximum of 30 days, but it took them around 15 days. They began interviews to evaluate judges interested in being part of the selection process for the committees on December 11 and finished on the 26th.

The evaluations concluded quickly, and on December 30, the Judicial Career Council announced that it had notified 100% of the applicants. This would initiate the appeals period. Evaluated individuals have 8 business days to file an appeal, and the CCJ has another 15 days to resolve and notify. Therefore, if the last evaluated individuals were notified on December 30, the deadline for the CCJ to resolve appeals and review requests expires on February 8.

This is different from what was proposed by the CC, since if the interviews had taken the maximum period established by the CC, the interviews should have been from December 11 to January 11. January 12 would have been the last day to notify the evaluated individuals and begin the period for receiving appeals from January 13 to 22. Subsequently, these appeals would be resolved until February 12. Thus, the nominating committees would have the list of evaluated individuals in their hands and could work for 20 days, from February 14 to March 4.

However, the CCJ sent the nominating committees the list with the scores of the evaluated judges on January 4. At the meeting on January 6, the Appeals Court nominating committee realized that the evaluations they received were preliminary and still subject to appeals by the evaluated individuals. Several judges, in fact, exercised their right to file for a review of the score obtained; therefore, the scores that the committees received were not yet final.

If the list of judge scores was not final, why did the CCJ send it that way?

In response, both committees decided to request proper execution of the CC's ruling. They were unsure whether they should begin the 20 days of work upon receiving these evaluations or wait until the scores were final. Meanwhile, the CSJ nominating committee began reviewing the 235 files it received between January 3 and 6.

Last Monday, January 20, the 14th Civil Court dismissed the proper execution of the CC's December 2 ruling. It also indicated that both the CCJ and the nominating committees have complied with the CC's order. Furthermore, it stated that the appeal periods must be respected. Therefore, the CCJ must send the judges' evaluations to the nominating committees on February 9. After that, the committees will begin their 20 days of work to form the lists they will send to Congress.

Without a constitutional deadline, is there no urgency?

We should have had new Supreme Court and Appeals Court Justices in October 2019. Now that this constitutional deadline has been violated and the judicial selection process has been extended, there is no longer a deadline for this legislature to appoint new justices. This legislature, by the way, was not responsible for electing the justices. Therefore, deadlines or timeframes are not as important or relevant as last year. There is no longer pressure to send the lists to Congress as soon as possible. Nor is there a deadline for Congress to elect the next justices.

On the other hand, one disadvantage is that the conclusion of the work of these nominating committees overlaps with the beginning of the nominating committee to elect magistrates for the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. There are members of these committees who will also have to focus on a third committee at the same time.

This chaotic process of electing Supreme Court and Appeals Court Justices is about to come to an end. What is certain is that, as a consequence, the next justices will not serve a full 5-year term from their appointment until October 2024.