Constitutional Court Judge Violates Constitution

Unbelievable but true, the president of the Spanish Constitutional Court Francisco Perez de los Cobos, publicly admitted recently that he had been a member of the governing Popular Party while a magistrate of the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court in Spain, specifically between 2008 and 2011. He took the oath as a Constitutional Court magistrate on 29 December 2010.


Spanish law bans party membership for judges and magistrates. By law, appointment for such a position while being an active member of any political party is considered incompatible. This is because it may jeopardise the judge's impartiality with justice thus losing its essence.


This principle is established in Article 127 of the Constitution, in Article 395 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary, and in Article 19 of the Law ruling the Constitutional Court (LOTC): "Judges and magistrates may not belong to political parties while they are active". Moreover, the same Article 19 of the LOTC says that in case of incompatibility, the judge should cease their incompatible activity, and in case this does not occur within 10 days, it shall be understood that he does not accept the appointment as magistrate the court assigned.


How can it be then, that a judge of the Constitutional Court (the supreme interpreter of the Spanish Constitution), has been an active member of a political party for more than a year without being removed from his position? What's more, how is it he has made it public and has not been removed yet?