The reform of the Judicial Branch, one of the axes of the package of 20 initiatives presented by López Obrador in February 2024 with the aim of being approved towards the end of his term, enters the decisive stage for its approval. The bill, which proposes the election by popular vote of ministers, judges and magistrates, the reduction of the Supreme Court, the creation of a judicial administration body and a Disciplinary Court, has been approved in general in the Chamber of Deputies and the reform continues its path to be discussed in particular, with the objections that the opposition may have. Once it is approved, the amendment will be discussed in the Senate.
The growing pressure from both the judiciary workers of twenty states who are maintaining an indefinite work stoppage in protest and demanding open dialogue, and from the country’s main business associations, who warn of a drop in investment if the bill is approved, have caused, among other things, the plenary meeting to be moved to a sports centre in the Magdalena Mixhuca neighbourhood, very close to the Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack. The judiciary workers blocked access to San Lázardo since Tuesday and, despite the reluctance to hold a dialogue at the alternate venue, the deputies held a session starting at 4:00 p.m.
The keys to judicial reform
The most controversial point of the bill is the popular election of more than 1,600 judicial positions, including Supreme Court ministers, Federal Judicial Council counselors, Federal Electoral Tribunal magistrates, circuit magistrates and district judges. The elections would be held in two phases: in 2025, the Supreme Court ministers, the magistrates of the new Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal, the new Administrative Body and half of the district judges and circuit magistrates would be elected; in 2027, the remaining half would be elected. The elections would be organized by the National Electoral Institute (INE).
The reform project also seeks to reduce the number of justices that make up the Supreme Court to nine, which currently has 11 members. The presidency, the document states, will be renewed every two years on a rotating basis, determined by the number of votes obtained by each candidate. In addition, the elected justices will remain in office for eight, 11 and 14 years, depending on the number of votes obtained by each one: those with the most votes will remain in office for a longer period. The ministers in office who are not elected in 2025 will not be beneficiaries of the retirement pension, a life pension that includes a Christmas bonus, life insurance, vacation bonus and risk bonus. In addition, the reform proposes that no minister, magistrate or judge may earn a salary greater than that of the president.
As regards judges and magistrates, the reform proposes a nine-year term in office, with the option of running for consecutive re-election. The requirements to aspire to these judicial positions include having a professional degree in Law and an average of eight to nine in related subjects, having at least five years’ experience in legal activity, in addition to submitting essays and five letters of reference from neighbours and colleagues, which support their suitability for the position.
What does judicial reform need to be approved?
The General Council of the INE, immersed in a discussion on the way in which the plurinominal spaces are distributed based on the interpretation of the Constitution, approved that Morena and its allies (the PT and the PVEM) hold 73% of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies (364 legislators) for the legislature that began operations on September 1, 2024. Although the Electoral Tribunal will have to resolve the opposition’s challenges in the coming days to confirm the distribution of Congress, with the qualified majority in San Lázaro the ruling party can reform the Constitution without the need to negotiate with opponents and therefore, facilitate the path to approval of the reform of the judicial power, whose discussion begins this Monday in the Chamber of Deputies.
The ruling bloc’s bet is to pass the bill on to the next legislature, which would be in charge of submitting it to a vote in the San Lázaro plenary session, while waiting for the Electoral Tribunal of the Judicial Branch of the Federation (TEPJF) to confirm the qualified majority of Morena and its allies in the Chamber of Deputies. If this scenario is valid and after passing its approval in the chamber of origin, the bill would be sent to the Senate, where Morena and its allies will occupy 83 seats, just three away from obtaining a qualified majority. The negotiating capacity of the ruling party to obtain the three seats that separate it from being a majority in the upper house will be decisive in the approval of the reform.
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