Bombay Durpun - Top Mexican court nixes bid to invalidate election of judges

The constitutional amendment making Mexico the world's only country to allow voters to choose judges at all levels -- starting next year -- has sparked opposition street protests and diplomatic tensions with Washington.

Last week, eight of 11 Supreme Court justices decided not to seek election in June 2025, submitting resignations that will mostly take effect next August.

After more than five hours of debate, the top court rejected a proposal by justice Juan Luis Gonzalez to declare the election of judges unconstitutional.

Sheinbaum on Monday accused the court of "overstepping its functions" by seeking to change reforms that have already been incorporated into the constitution.

"Eight justices cannot be above the people of Mexico," she told a news conference.

"The people of Mexico are going to vote for judges, magistrates and justices," added Sheinbaum, who took office on October 1, becoming the country's first woman president.

Francisco Burgoa, a professor of constitutional law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, had warned that if the government ignored the top court "we would be facing an unprecedented constitutional crisis."

Former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador argued that the reforms, which he enacted in September before leaving office, were needed to clean up a "rotten" judiciary serving the interests of the political and economic elite.

Critics fear that elected judges could be influenced by politics and pressure from criminal gangs that regularly target officials with bribery and intimidation.

The United States said that the changes threatened a relationship that relies on investor confidence in the Mexican legal framework -- a warning that Lopez Obrador rejected as "interventionist."

G.Radhakrishnan--BD