Chihuahua— The constitutional reform on justice matters orders the elimination of the State Judicial Council (CJE), the administrative body of the Judicial Branch that has lacked stability since its creation in 2016, as it has been reformed twice and faced legal controversies due to its composition and excessive powers.
The proposed changes in articles 116 and 122 of the General Constitution of the Republic instruct the creation, instead of the CJE, of a Disciplinary Court to sanction judges and a technical administrative body, that is, it separates jurisdictional functions from administrative functions. The Council was created at the end of César Duarte’s six-year term through a state constitutional reform, but it did not come into operation until the beginning of the administration of his successor, Javier Corral, who also reformed it to provide it with greater powers, which were reversed by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN). Still in 2024, the CJE was reformed again to establish a new procedure for the appointment of judges and magistrates, but all its regulations will be without effect as the constitutional changes are of national application. According to the decree that reforms, adds to and repeals provisions of 27 articles of the Mexican Constitution, the judicial branches of the states must adapt in a similar way to the Federal Judicial Branch, which in this case proposes the elimination of the Federal Judicial Council (CJF), the creation of the Disciplinary Tribunal and a technical body for administration. Currently, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, Norma Piña, also presides over the CJF, but with the reform and the elimination of the council, the new disciplinary tribunal would form part of the Judicial Branch, although it would have full autonomy from the SCJN.
History with surprises
In the case of Chihuahua, the CJE is made up of three counselors from the Judicial Branch; one is appointed by the Executive Branch and one designated by the Legislative Branch. Since its creation, in accordance with the regulations that gave rise to it and its reforms, it has always been headed by the same magistrate who presides over the State Superior Court of Justice. The council, for its entry into operation already under the government of Javier Corral, began with the president of the State Superior Court of Justice (TSJE), Julio Jiménez Castro, as head; on behalf of the Executive, the lawyer Luz Estela “Lucha” Castro was appointed and on behalf of the Legislative Branch, Joaquín Sotelo Mesta. The composition changed in 2019, when magistrate Jiménez Castro retired and magistrate Pablo Héctor González Villalobos was elected. In the midst of this political change in the TSJE and the CJE, and due to reforms promoted at the beginning of the Corral Jurado administration, the council acquired excessive powers for the appointment of judges and magistrates, although a year later they were annulled by the SCJN, due to demands for their unconstitutionality. The CJE ended up fracturing when the then Legislative counselor, Sotelo Mesta, denounced manipulation of the organization by Corral and “Lucha” Castro, which led to permanent legal conflicts until the counselor’s departure for health reasons, in 2019. Upon Castro’s retirement, Corral appointed former PAN councilor Minerva Correa Hinojosa as executive counselor in the CJE, who is still a member of the organization. In 2021, at the beginning of the administration of Governor Maru Campos, after Judge González Villalobos resigned as president of the TSJE, Judge Myriam Hernández was elected, who had been in charge of the Third Civil Chamber since 2014. Months later, the CJE was reconfigured due to the expiration of the terms of the previous counselor magistrates, and in their place, in December 2021, Luis Villegas Montes and Filiberto Terrazas, heads of the Seventh Civil and Second Civil Chambers based in Juárez, respectively, also since 2014, were appointed. Subsequently, in July 2022, the former legal advisor in Javier’s administration, Javier Acosta Molina, was appointed as a counselor by the Legislature. In the case of the counselor magistrates, they were appointed by their fellow members of the TSJE plenary; the executive advisors, appointed at the discretion of the governor in office, and the legislative advisors, by consensus and vote of the political forces represented in the State Congress.
Goodbye to the CJE…
The eight years of existence of the CJE have been marked by its legal instability and questionable powers, since after the reforms, the groups opposed to the dominant political power have legally attacked the changes that it has tried to introduce in the work of administering the Judicial Branch. They have also been marked by the opacity of its agreements, organic structure, salaries, operation, sessions, of which there is no public information available, except for publications of its resolutions, which is required by law, in the Official State Gazette. Likewise, while the Federal Judicial Council is an autonomous and independent body of the Supreme Court of Justice, but an integral part of the Judicial Branch, the CJE functions as an organ dependent on the TSJE, as a result of its latest reforms. This composition will be eliminated and in its place, according to the needs considered by the Judicial Branch of Chihuahua, the Disciplinary Tribunal independent of the TSJE will be created, with a number of magistrates not defined at the state level; and the administrative functions will be absorbed by another different body. The judges who make up the internal disciplinary court must be elected by popular vote, as well as the 31 who make up the TSJE, the three who make up the State Electoral Court and more than 500 first instance judges who work in all the judicial districts of the state.
Who does it affect?
- President: Myriam Hernández, was appointed as a magistrate of the Third Civil Chamber in 2014. Appointed president of the TSJE and the CJE in November 2021 and reelected in 2023
- Judicial Advisor: Luis Villegas Montes, former deputy and former PAN official, appointed as a magistrate of the Seventh Civil Chamber in 2014. He was commissioned to the CJE as an advisor on December 18, 2021
- Judicial Counsel: Filiberto Terrazas Padilla, appointed as magistrate of the Second Civil Chamber in Ciudad Juárez in 2014; commissioned to the CJE on December 18, 2021
- Executive Advisor: Minerva Correa Hinojosa, former PAN councilor and former PAN advisor in the Legislature, appointed to the position on October 23, 2019; she took over from Luz Estela “Lucha” Castro, appointed in 2017
- Legislative Counselor: Javier Acosta Molina, former legal advisor to the Javier Corral government. He was appointed by the State Congress on July 12, 2022, replacing fellow PAN member Joaquín Sotelo Mesta
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