{"id":242080,"date":"2025-09-30T07:08:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T11:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/?p=242080"},"modified":"2025-09-30T09:55:27","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T13:55:27","slug":"overhaul-of-supreme-court-judges-will-take-place-as-abinader-presides-the-national-council-of-the-magistracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/2025\/09\/30\/overhaul-of-supreme-court-judges-will-take-place-as-abinader-presides-the-national-council-of-the-magistracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Overhaul of Supreme Court Judges will take place as Abinader presides the National Council of the Magistracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
President Luis Abinader and President of the CNM, Luis Henry Molina \/ Diario Libre<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

President Luis Abinader is set to preside the reshaping of the Dominican Republic’s highest court, with the power to renew virtually the entire Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) bench over the next six months, Diario Libre reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The National Council of the Magistracy (CNM), which Abinader chairs, is charged with evaluating and appointing 16 of the 17 of the SCJ judges. This process gives the current administration, whose party holds three of the CNM’s eight votes, significant influence over the future of the judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first round of critical judicial evaluations begins in October 2025. The CNM will assess four judges appointed in July 2017 whose original seven-year terms technically expired in July 2024. These judges have been serving more than a year past their expected end date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only one, Blas Rafael Fern\u00e1ndez G\u00f3mez, has publicly stated he will not seek reappointment, guaranteeing at least one new face on the SCJ and the Judicial Council. The other three are serving their first term and are eligible for a second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CNM must also fill the SCJ seat vacated by Napole\u00f3n Est\u00e9vez Lavandier, who became president of the Constitutional Court (TC) in 2023. Additionally, the Council must select four new magistrates for the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE), whose four-year terms ended in July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diario Libre reports that the second, and potentially more sweeping, phase is scheduled for April 2026. At that time, 12 judges sworn in by former President Danilo Medina in 2019 will complete their seven-year terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This group includes Luis Henry Molina, the current president of the high court. While nine of these judges \u2014including Molina\u2014 are eligible for re-election, three have already completed their two-term limit and must be replaced: Fran Euclides Soto S\u00e1nchez, Francisco Antonio Jerez, and Manuel Ram\u00f3n Herrera Carbuccia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CNM’s mandate requires a legal justification to separate any judge eligible for re-election. Decisions hinge on performance evaluations that scrutinize a judge’s:
\u2022 Integrity, impartiality, and independence
\u2022 Objectivity and discipline
\u2022 Quantity of sentences produced
\u2022 Average case-to-verdict time
\u2022 Recusations filed and accepted<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current evaluation schedule follows a history of delays. The CNM’s inaction has resulted in some judges \u2014such as the four currently up for review\u2014 serving a substantial time beyond their original mandate. Under the CNM’s Organic Law, judges remain in office until their successors are chosen or they are confirmed, a provision that has contributed to the current backlog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more in Spanish:
Diario Libre <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

30 September 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Luis Abinader is set to preside the reshaping of the Dominican Republic’s highest court, with the power to renew virtually the entire Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) bench over the next six months, Diario Libre reports. The National Council of the Magistracy (CNM), which Abinader chairs, is charged with evaluating and appointing 16 of … <\/p>\n

Read more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[337,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242080"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242136,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242080\/revisions\/242136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dr1.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}