In Mexico, the Supreme Court refuses to revoke the controversial judicial reform

The Supreme Court of Mexico rejected, against all odds, on Tuesday, November 5, an appeal to annul a controversial reform of the judicial system sought by the side of the leftist president Claudia Sheinbaum, avoiding the country a major political crisis between the presidency and the judicial power. “The present unconstitutionality appeals are rejected”the Court wrote in its ruling after more than five hours of public deliberations.

This appeal was presented by two opposition parties, with strong winds against this reform, the cornerstone of which is the election of all judges and magistrates in the country by universal suffrage starting in June 2025, a world first.

A qualified majority of eight judges of the eleven Supreme Court threatened to vote in favor of the annulment. But a last-minute switch of sides by one of them changed the balance of power.

Promulgated in mid-September by the former head of state Andrés Manuel López Obrador after a complex adoption process by the national Parliament and the majority of the states, the reform is ardently defended by the new president Sheinbaum, who took power on October 1st.

Fight against “corruption”, “nepotism” and “privileges”

The left, which has a large majority in Parliament, justifies this reform to fight against “corruption”HE “nepotism” and the “privileges” unelected judges. “I am glad that reason, decency and legality have prevailed”the president of the Senate, Gerardo Fernández Noroña, told the press after the Court’s decision.

A draft ruling prepared by one of the Court’s judges, Juan Luis González Alcántara, partially annulled the reform by declaring constitutional the election by universal suffrage of the judges of the Supreme Court, but not that of lower-ranking judges.

To be adopted, this ruling had to be approved by at least eight of the eleven judges of the Supreme Court. Until Tuesday, only three magistrates considered close to the left had announced that they would vote against. But against all odds, at the beginning of the hearing they were joined by one of their colleagues, who harshly criticized the reform but refused to declare it contrary to the Constitution. Canceling the reform would consist of “respond to a madness taken to the Supreme Text [la Constitution]for another equivalent madness »justified this judge, Alberto Pérez Dayan.

The National Regeneration Movement (Morena, left), in power since 2018, accuses the judicial system of being at the service of a conservative elite. The opposition and the affected officials, mobilized for weeks, denounce a challenge to the independence of the judiciary. Protesters gathered during the debates, broadcast live on the Internet, in front of the headquarters of the Supreme Court of Justice in Mexico City.

Concern in Washington

The United States – where judges from the federated states are elected and their mandates are put into play periodically, unlike federal judges – claim that this reform threatens their private investments in Mexico, which need legal stability.

In late August, the US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, angered the Mexican government by stating that the reform “facilitate the influence of cartels and malicious actors on inexperienced judges”and had mentioned a “Great risk for the functioning of democracy in Mexico”.

With the “politicization of the judicial system”Investors may wonder if “Disagreements between companies and government will be resolved impartially”asked the British company Capital Economics in a note to its clients.

Analysts feared that a reversal of judicial reform by the Supreme Court would trigger a constitutional crisis of unprecedented severity. President Sheinbaum believed that the highest body of the country’s federal judiciary did not have the authority to revoke a reform without violating the Constitution. “We cannot go back on what the people decided” and in this “which is already part of the Constitution”he said again Tuesday.