Eight of the country’s 11 supreme court judges will stand down over reforms supported by President Claudia Sheinbaum

Eight of Mexico’s 11 supreme court judges have submitted their resignations after controversial judicial reforms, the top court has said.

In a move that has sparked diplomatic tensions and opposition street protests, Mexico is set to become the world’s only country to allow voters to choose all judges, at every level, starting next year.

The eight justices – including president Norma Pina – declined to stand for election in June 2025, a statement said, adding that one of the resignations would take effect in November and the rest next August.

The announcement came as the supreme court prepares to consider a proposal to invalidate the election of judges and magistrates. President Claudia Sheinbaum, however, has said that the court lacks the authority to reverse a constitutional reform approved by congress.

    • Cephalotrocity@biglemmowski.win
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      15 hours ago

      It biases them towards catering to public demand instead of being a neutral arbiter of justice.

      Want to keep your job as judge? Better not be ‘weak on crime’ etc…

      • rah
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        13 hours ago

        It biases them towards catering to public demand instead of being a neutral arbiter of justice.

        But they’re biased anyway, towards whoever has the power to take away their job. They’re never neutral arbiters of justice.

        • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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          14 hours ago

          In a well run country that requires a supermajority of some kind of council picked by different groups like some representatives for the judges, others picked by the legislature, etc. which avoids any group having full control of the courts.

        • TomSelleck@lemm.ee
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          14 hours ago

          Especially in rural areas where they can just legislate criminal justice policy from the bench.

      • venusaur@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        That’s what the founding fathers thought but they end up being biased to whomever gets them the seat. Additionally, if the country decides to become more progressive or conservative, judges either have to be flexible based on public opinion, or they need term limits to make room for change. It’s broken.

    • TheBlackLounge@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

      Electing judges will get them involved with party politics. They’ll have to spend time campaigning, and there will be less experienced judges.

        • TheBlackLounge@lemm.ee
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          5 hours ago

          No. The ruling party gets to appoint a new judge when one retires.

          Afaik the problem is that the Democrats play nice and the Republicans take advantage of this, because why wouldn’t they? Ofc each party is going to appoint a judge with alligned world views, but sitting judges don’t need to show loyalty or do party politics whatsoever.

        • unalivejoy@lemm.ee
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          7 hours ago

          Supreme Court justices are appointed and they serve for life (or retirement/resignation). State justices can vary.

    • d00ery@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      Interesting question, and as lots have already commented, judges are possibly biased to whoever keeps them in power.

      Perhaps a lottery amongst the pool of potential judges (lawyers or whoever it may be)

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        11 hours ago

        Sortition democracy is one of the cooler ideas anarchists have come up with as a way to replace representative democracy.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            Well yeah, juries are selected that way in the US.

            Some anarchists take it farther and see it as a way to completely replace representative democracy as a structure of power. No more politicians, no more elections, every position is filled randomly from the population.

    • Troy@lemmy.ca
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      13 hours ago

      Elected judges cannot ever truly be impartial judges. The Rule of Law in a democracy means that politicians are subject to the Law as much as anyone else. But electing judges turns them into politicians with the power to give themselves more power without checks and balances.

      Basically it removes the independence of the judiciary, and in the process erodes democracy. Ironically.

        • Troy@lemmy.ca
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          11 hours ago

          The US is broken for many reasons.

          The Canadian Supreme Court, by comparison (in fact all judges in Canada) are merit based appointments. So far we’ve managed to avoid political appointments, for the most part. Although current conservative rhetoric is starting to target the courts.

          Most functioning western world countries do not have partisanship in their courts.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Like most of what the US does, it’s been perverted by money. Most other functioning democracies run a judicial system that’s independent of the administration and at least reasonably impartial.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          11 hours ago

          Yes, unelected judges are not inherently impartial.

          However, elected judges are unanimously awful.

          There is a distinction there. The former is capable of impartiality.

    • notaviking@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      My opinion is, not based on Mexico, that the public is uninformed in the majority of decisions. Basically delegating power to the common person, especially technical decisions to the public will mean the most popular choice will win mostly, not the best choice. That is basically populism in a nutshell. Imagine you had to choose in this example a food policymaker, the one is the charismatic Willy Wonka that will say he wants everyone to eat sweets all the time, he wants you to eat whatever you want to eat, give you choices by subsidising all the sweets, worse he will attack Dr. Grouch, because he wants to tell you what to eat, force additional taxes on sweets to try and guide people to eat more gross vegetables, in fact basically force you, the poorest to have no choice but to eat these “healthy” foods. And unfortunately Dr. Grouch will agree, he wants you to eat "healthy food because in a couple of years you and your children will reap the benefits.

        • notaviking@lemmy.world
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          60 minutes ago

          This example was exactly the issue Socrates had with democracy actually, saying that a demagogue would be elected as a president or leaders of government the majority of the time. His solution was just as vague, so let’s just say there is no perfect system yet. All have their benefits and drawbacks.

          Look it is messy, my feeling is you vote or don’t vote for a party based on their policy and track record, but after elections they have the will of the people to act, so they should then focus on the technical issues of government by being guided by their election promises, policy and the country’s constitution to ensure that minorities aren’t discriminated against for example.

        • notaviking@lemmy.world
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          59 minutes ago

          This example was exactly the issue Socrates had with democracy actually, saying that a demagogue would be elected as a president or leaders of government the majority of the time. His solution was just as vague, so let’s just say there is no perfect system yet. All have their benefits and drawbacks.

          Look it is messy, my feeling is you vote or don’t vote for a party based on their policy and track record, but after elections they have the will of the people to act, so they should then focus on the technical issues of government by being guided by their election promises, policy and the country’s constitution to ensure that minorities aren’t discriminated against for example.

        • toiletobserver@lemmy.world
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          12 hours ago

          Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony

          • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
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            11 hours ago

            Democracy is the only viable system of government. That said, turning judges into politicians is probably not what we want, and there’s a lot of uncertainty in the philosophical literature about how best to deal with the judicial branch in general.

            • toiletobserver@lemmy.world
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              5 hours ago

              Who said the position must be political? Under the current usa system, the supreme court is nominated by politicians and decided by politicians. I wouldn’t call it functional currently.

              Instead, examine a state like Washington that votes for many judge positions, with fixed terms and no political affiliation. Seems to be working better than the federal system of appointments.

              So yes, democracy is best.

              • yeahiknow3@lemmings.world
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                4 hours ago

                I would prefer that, yes. I suppose the worry is that at a federal level the positions could become politicized (a Supreme Court seat wields a tremendous amount of power — more than any senator). We can imagine a campaign to elect conservative judges.