Mexican Supreme Court justice resigns amid controversial judicial reform

MEXICO CITY (CN) — Supreme Court Justice Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena announced his resignation Tuesday in a letter to Mexico’s Senate citing a controversial judicial reform it passed in September.

The reform overhauls the country’s judicial system to require that each of Mexico’s 7,000 judges be elected through popular vote by 2027. Before the reform, Mexico used a system based on professional proficiency to appoint judges. Critics say moving to a popular vote could lead to corruption and favoritism, and the end to a “career” as a judge.

“Today, I am facing a constitutional reform that reduces the mandate that I was sworn into. I am presented with two options: to submit to a popular election process or to submit my resignation. I don’t consider myself a suitable candidate for a position that depends on popular support,” Ortiz Mena wrote in the letter.

Ortiz Mena will step down from his position on Aug. 31, 2025.

Current Supreme Court justices will be up for election on June 1, 2025, and if they do not wish to participate, they are expected to announce their resignation by Thursday.

In an interview with the Mexican newspaper Reforma on Monday, Supreme Court Justice Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá announced that at least seven more ministers of court are expected to announce their resignation, including himself and the court’s president, Norma Lucía Piña.

Piña previously challenged the reform when she called on legislators and members of the justice system to analyze twodocuments she released outlining her alternative to the reforms.

The other justices who are expected to announce are Luis María Aguilar Morales, Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo, Margarita Ríos Farjat, Javier Laynez Potisek and Alberto Pérez Dayán.

In September, Piña and Aguilar Morales joined hundreds of protesters of the then-proposed reforms outside the Mexican Senate building to express their support.

On Monday, Alcántara Carrancá issued a draft judgment partially challenging the reform.

“The nomination of candidates to occupy all the positions of judges and magistrates is unconstitutional** ** because it does not guarantee the indispensable minimums in a democratic system that protects the division of powers and judicial independence,” he wrote.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation will discuss Alcántara Carrancá’s finding on Nov. 5, which could partially invalidate the reform. His judgment needs the support of at least eight of the court’s 11 justices to be approved.

The reform was the final act of former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration before President Claudia Sheinbaum took office on Oct. 1.

Sheinbaum said in a press conference on Tuesday that the Supreme Court does not have the power to act as a legislator and cannot invalidate constitutional reforms, but that her administration will wait for the court’s vote.

“Political parties do not have legal personage to present a writ of protection against constitutional changes,” she said. “The court cannot be a legislator.”

Sheinbaum also claimed that the judges want to retire with their retirement money intact.

“If they retire now, they’ll leave with all their retirement money,” she said. “It’s a lot of money.”