Supreme Court Justice
Cortes was named Associate Justice of the Supreme Court on February 1, 1987, by President Corazon Aquino. Cortes was the third woman named to the Court, following Cecilia Muñoz-Palma and Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera. She served on the Court until she retired in 1990.
Despite her relatively brief stint on the Court, Cortes made considerable contributions to jurisprudence. Her opinion for the Court in Valmonte v. Belmonte (1989) set forth the parameters for the constitutional right to information, as guaranteed under Article III, Sec. 7 of the Constitution. More controversial was her majority opinion in Marcos v. Manglapus (1989) which carried a sharply divided 8-7 Court. Reflecting views she had previously published before she was appointed to the Court, Cortes wrote that the President possessed "residual unstated powers" beyond those granted by the Constitution "to protect the general welfare"; and that the exercise of these powers justified the presidential ban against the return to the Philippines of the deposed Ferdinand Marcos. These views on "residual powers", similar to those expressed by U.S. Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson in his concurring opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), remain the subject of academic debate.
Read more about this topic: Irene Cortes
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