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BY MIRA CRANE ‘27
GLOBAL EDITOR
In Mexico, judges may soon be chosen by ballot. On Sept. 4, the lower house of Mexico’s Congress passed a proposal that would redesign the entire judiciary of Mexico, according to the New York Times. The plan would allow almost all of the country’s judges — more than 7,000 — to be elected by voters, be they at the federal, state or local level. Currently, the Mexican president appoints judges by virtue of their qualifications and training.
According to Judiciaries Worldwide, Mexico’s Supreme Court is composed of 11 justices and one chief justice, whose appointments are confirmed by the Senate. There is no mandatory retirement age. Justices must not have served in any other branches of government within one year prior to their appointment.
Proponents of the bill argue that it will increase judges' accountability, according to the BBC. Mexico’s current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has advocated for judicial reform for a long time, citing the current system as corrupt and inefficient. The president has routinely criticized the Supreme Court during his six year term following its hold up of changes he had proposed in the energy and security sectors. President López Obrador intends to approve the reforms before the end of his term in office, which comes at the end of this month. His party, Morena, won the election this past June and the incoming president, Claudia Sheinbaum, also supports the proposed judicial reform.
According to the New York Times, the proposed judicial overhaul has led to protests throughout the country. Hundreds of federal judges and judicial workers began a strike last month in response to the overhaul plan.They were joined by judicial employees at the high court early in the week of Sept. 4. In support of the strike, eight of Mexico’s 11 Supreme Court justices voted to suspend sessions for the rest of the week. The workers on strike attempted to delay the vote in the lower house by blocking the entrance as a human chain, but the legislature simply switched venues.
According to NPR, three separate judges have also attempted to issue injunctions in an attempt to prohibit debate of the reform among lawmakers and bring it to a halt, which has been unsuccessful. Opponents of the president’s plan argue that it does not address “impunity and chronic underfunding,” two of the biggest issues Mexico’s judiciary faces, according to the BBC. They also argue that having to stand for election may make judges more vulnerable to the influence of organized crime and powerful local figures.
The proposed system would reduce the judgeship’s qualifications to a law degree and “relatively little” experience, the New York Times reported. The US Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and the Canadian ambassador to Mexico Graeme Clark have both spoken out against the proposed reforms, the BBC reported. President López Obrador responded by pausing relations with both countries, stating, "They have to learn to respect Mexico's sovereignty.”
If Mexico’s judicial reform plan passes, it would become an outlier among democratic states.
“This is a disappointing though not unexpected development in Mexican politics,” Andy Reiter, an associate professor of politics and international relations at Mount Holyoke, said in an email to Mount Holyoke News. “While some judges are elected in other countries, this is an extremely expansive proposal that will severely erode a major check on other branches of government.”
The New York Times reported that few democratic countries elect judges. The United States is an exception, where many states hold elections for judges. However, elections are not utilized for the entire federal judiciary, which is appointed by the president; a system many other countries find perplexing. Switzerland allows elections for judges at the local level, and Japan allows for judges to be reviewed by a referendum every 10 years. The closest system to Mexico’s proposed plan is Bolivia’s, in which some powerful judges have been elected following the enactment of a new constitution in 2009, but this is not applicable to the entire judiciary.
The Mexican lower house of government will now have to work out the details of the bill before it moves on to the Senate, according to the New York Times. It is expected to pass, despite the fact that the ruling coalition is one seat shy of a supermajority.
Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27 contributed fact-checking.