Milton Ray Guevara urges President Abinader to assert authority in Supreme Court selection

Milton Ray Guevara, the former president of the Constitutional Court, has publicly urged Dominican Republic President Luis Abinader to exercise his constitutional authority during the selection of the next Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) leadership and bench.

Ray Guevara criticized what he described as a coordinated campaign to pressure the President into selecting only “career judges” for the position of Chief Justice. He argued that the constitutional framework allows the head of state, in his capacity as chair of the National Council of the Magistracy (CNM), to leave a personal mark on the court's composition. To support this, he noted that in the United States, many Supreme Court justices have not risen through the judicial career ladder.

Regarding the current composition of the SCJ, Ray Guevara suggested that the judiciary requires “new blood.” He stated that if given the choice, he would retain only four of the eleven sitting judges currently undergoing evaluation. He also expressed opposition to reappointing any magistrate who has already completed two consecutive seven-year terms, advocating for a hybrid model that integrates external legal experts to prevent a closed institutional mindset.