Mexico's Supreme Court will review AMLO's judicial overhaul

Mexico’s Supreme Court has agreed to review the judicial overhaul passed by Congress last month that critics say threaten the body’s independence, according to a person with direct knowledge of the decision. It’s the last resort to appeal the controversial decision, which calls for the election of judges by popular vote.

The court has so far accepted four requests from judges and magistrates asking it to review the judicial reform, rule on its implications on the judiciary’s independence and the division of powers in Mexico, according to the person. The decision to review was approved with eight votes in favor and three against.

The reform, proposed by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, makes it so about half of the judges — including those on the Supreme Court — will be up for election in June 2025, and the rest in 2027. Critics of the plan, including the U.S., investors and companies, say the popular election of judges will erode checks on the ruling Morena party’s power and undermine democracy.

President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that nothing can stop the judicial overhaul because it was a decision of the people of Mexico. On Monday, she sent an electoral reform proposal to Congress detailing the process for the election of judges next year. The president of the Senate, Gerardo Fernández Noroña, said the discussion of Sheinbaum’s proposal could start Wednesday.

Fernandez Noroña previously said that neither the Supreme Court nor the judiciary have any legal authority to review the acts of Congress, and that the judicial reform will be implemented whether the highest court wants it to or not, according to a press release from the Senate.

The court also rejected Monday a request by Justice Yasmín Esquivel to dismiss the petitions to review the reform, the person added.