Mexico lawmakers shield judicial overhaul from court decisions

MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Lower House voted to shield changes to the constitution from being impacted by Supreme Court decisions, days before a meeting of the top court to review a controversial overhaul of the country’s judiciary.

The ruling coalition approved Wednesday a constitutional amendment in the Lower House to protect the government’s constitutional reforms with 340 votes in favor, 133 against and one abstention, comfortably surpassing the two-thirds majority required to change the constitution. The proposal had already been approved by Senate and will now be voted on by state legislatures, where the ruling Morena party holds large majorities, before President Claudia Sheinbaum can sign it into law.

The amendment seeks to prohibit courts from challenging or suspending changes to the constitution, a way to protect a judicial overhaul approved by Congress in September. The recent changes to the judiciary mean the country will elect all federal judges, including those of the Supreme Court, by popular vote. The plan was originally proposed by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Prior to the Lower House’s vote, the Supreme Court was expected to discuss on Nov. 5 a draft ruling from Justice Juan Luis Gonzalez Alcantara Carranca that would preserve key parts of the reform, such as the election of the top court justices, but invalidate other elements he considers unconstitutional, like the fast-track election of federal judges. The approval of the amendment Wednesday may stop the top court from discussing Gonzalez Alcantara’s arguments, which he presented in response to legal actions brought by political groups against the overhaul.

It’s not clear whether local legislatures will approve the amendment prior to the top court’s meeting next week.

Investors, opposition lawmakers and allies like the U.S. have expressed concerns that the reform will erode the separation of powers and pose risks to Mexico’s democracy. Sheinbaum and her allies have repeated that no judge in the country can stop the judicial reform, because it was a decision of the people of Mexico, and that the overhaul seeks to curb corruption in the judiciary.

“You were never given a mandate to overturn our democratic system of checks and balances,” said opposition senator Emilio Suarez Licona, from the PRI party, during the Wednesday debate.

The judicial overhaul has faced numerous challenges from local judges, the most recent of which ordered its removal from the official gazette. The challenges have been shrugged off by Congress and Sheinbaum.

Since the new congress took office in September, it has approved a slew of the constitutional reforms proposed by Lopez Obrador. Those include an energy reform that has concerned investors because it will give state companies, like oil driller Petroleos Mexicanos and utility Comision Federal de Electricidad, the priority over private companies in energy generation and distribution.

Congress is expected to debate before the end of the year another controversial reform that seeks to eliminate autonomous regulatory bodies, such as Mexico’s antitrust regulator and its transparency institute.

Senate President Gerardo Fernandez Noroña confirmed Wednesday that eight of the 11 Supreme Court justices, including its president Norma Piña Hernandez, have put forward letters of future resignation and declined to participate in the election of the judiciary planned for 2025.

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(With assistance from Maya Averbuch.)