Spain’s Constitutional Court plenary on Wednesday inadmitted, by ten votes to two, the amparo appeal filed by the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo. He had asked for a halt to the vote suspension covering 163,020 people naturalised under the so-called “grandchildren’s law.” Inadmission is not a ruling on the merits of that right.

The majority held the appeal premature: the ordinary path before the Supreme Court’s contentious-administrative chamber is not exhausted, and the case there is still running. The reporting judge was Enrique Arnaldo. Ramón Sáez and Juan Carlos Campo voted against and announced dissenting opinions. El Mundo, citing legal sources, writes that the appeal will be resolved by auto rather than providencia, precisely because of those dissents.

Gabilondo had asked for the suspension to be lifted at once, citing the approaching general election on 29 November. The State Attorney’s Office and the public prosecutor had no standing for such an amparo. The government, El Mundo reported, wrongly thought the Constitutional Court could correct the Supreme Court before the ordinary court had spoken for good.

El Español, independent of El Mundo, confirms the same 10–2 split and the same reading: the claim fell before it reached the merits. President Cándido Conde-Pumpido held that, while the Supreme Court’s third chamber is still seised, it is not for the Constitutional Court to step in. Those concerned have been summoned to appear and file submissions; the Supreme Court may then keep, lift or vary the interim measure.

The Supreme Court’s interim suspension of the vote therefore stands because the amparo was not admitted. That is not a Constitutional Court judgment on who does or does not have the franchise. Nor is it a decision on the Justice Ministry instruction that gave rise to the Madrid case. Wednesday closed only the door of an appeal that had come too soon.

Source consulted: The Constitutional Court rejects the ‘grandchildren’s law’ appeal and leaves in place the vote suspension ordered by the Supreme Court — El Mundo.

Image: headquarters of Spain’s Constitutional Court, Madrid, 6 February 2025, Javier Perez Montes, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The building, not Wednesday’s vote.

Sources consulted: The Constitutional Court rejects the Ombudsman’s appeal 10–2 — El Español.