MEXICO CITY – Eight justices of Mexico’s Supreme Court have said they will leave the court rather than stand for election as required by a controversial judicial overhaul passed last month.
Supreme Court President Norma Piña and seven others submitted letters Tuesday and Wednesday stating they would leave their posts rather than compete in judicial elections scheduled for next June.
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The court’s three other justices have indicated they will compete in the elections. Previously, the Supreme Court’s justices were selected by the Senate.
Last month, Mexico’s Congress passed — and a majority of states ratified — then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s initiative to make all of the country’s judges subject to election.
López Obrador and his allies, including his successor Claudia Sheinbaum, have said the radical change will help rid the judicial system of corruption. However, critics say the courts will become less independent and more subject to political forces.
The resignations came before the Congress’ lower chamber later Wednesday passed yet another constitutional change that would protect constitutional amendments like the judicial overhaul from legal challenges. The Supreme Court is scheduled to take up such a challenge in the coming the days.
The amendment passed with 343 votes in favor and 129 against. The Senate had previously passed the legislation.
Business sectors in particular had voiced concerns that the change would weaken the rule of law. The Mexican Employers’ Association, Coparmex, had said in a statement before the vote that the initiative “puts at risk the fundamental guarantees that have protected citizens for decades.”
López Obrador clashed throughout his six-year term with the courts as they repeatedly knocked down some of his initiatives. He railed against judges in his daily morning press briefings and Sheinbaum, his protégé, has continued in a similar vein.
Sheinbaum had quipped Tuesday that if the Supreme Court justices didn’t resign now before the close of judicial candidate registration in November they could lose their pensions. “It’s a lot of money,” she said.