Judge rules Milei’s refusal to comply with university funding law ‘unconstitutional’

A federal judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Argentine government to refuse to comply with a 2025 law requiring it to increase funding for public universities and ordered authorities to implement it.

According to local media, the government will appeal the decision. The Human Capital Ministry did not reply to a request for comment from the Herald.

The ruling adds another chapter to the judicial back-and-forth over the law. Several judges have ordered the government to release the funds required under it, while authorities have refused to do so on the grounds that the law does not specify where the resources should come from.

The educational community has also taken legal steps over the past year to demand the full implementation of the law, along with staging several massive protests. The next march to defend public universities will be held on October 15.

Since President Javier Milei took office in December 2023, public universities have seen a sharp reduction in funding as part of the government’s broader spending cuts. Transfers to national universities are currently around 40% below their 2023 level, according to the Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Buenos Aires (IIEP-UBA).

The cuts have also hit university salaries, which have lost around 34% of their purchasing power.

The ruling On Tuesday, Judge Martín Cormick issued a ruling challenging the decree that the government published to stop the implementation of the law.

The decree, published in October 2025, justified stopping the law — approved by Congress in August of that year — on the grounds that its source of funding was not clear.

Before that, the government had tried to veto the law, but the decision was overturned by lawmakers.

Judge Cormick said the government’s justification for avoiding implementation of the law was “unreasonable,” and that it amounted to “a form of veto not included in the National Constitution.”

Therefore, the government’s decree “has operated as an extra-constitutional tool” to block a norm approved by Congress, he added.

Cormick ordered the national authorities to “immediately comply with the University Funding Law by enacting the necessary regulatory and implementing rules to that end.”

The ruling responded to a judicial protection request filed by the National Inter-University Council and public universities, as well as a lawsuit filed by the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

Protests The ruling came as tensions over the funding law are growing once again, with professors and staff carrying out strikes in recent weeks and a protest planned for October 15 in Buenos Aires. The latter will be the fifth march to defend public universities and call for better conditions since April 2024, and will be replicated across the country.

In addition, Wednesday morning marked the deadline for the government to comply with another judicial ruling by Judge Cormick regarding the funding law, which established that authorities should comply with a portion of the norm that raised employees’ salaries.

On Wednesday afternoon, university authorities who are part of the National Inter-University Commission will hold their monthly meeting in Plaza de Mayo, in front of the presidential palace, Casa Rosada, as a way to call for the implementation of the law.

Tuesday also marked an important day for public universities, as the UBA granted football star Lionel Messi an honorary doctorate on the day of his farewell as a member of the Argentine men’s national team.