Politics: Reform impasse deepens as Sheinbaum ignores court and moves to ban judicial review of reforms
Just two weeks ago, we provided an account of the serious conflicts generated by passage of the judicial reform proposals championed by the previous and current presidents of Mexico and the constitutional crisis it had ignited. Since then, the crisis has steadily deepened, fanned by the increasingly radicalized statements and actions of Claudia Sheinbaum and leaders of the Morena-controlled Senate: after a district judge ordered the Federal Executive to retract the judicial reform from the Official Gazette, Sheinbaum responded that “a judge is not above the people of Mexico” and insisted there was no legal basis for her ruling.
In the face of criticism about the dubious legal bases of the reform (and the dozens of appeals against it) the official coalition has already begun to pass another constitutional reform initiative to permanently establish the supremacy of the Legislative Branch over the Judiciary and eliminate constitutional control. In other words, to end the legal resistance to the judicial reform with another constitutional reform that establishes that the Judicial Branch will never again be able to question a reform of the Constitution approved by Congress.
The impasse is further complicated by the absence of clear definitions in the law as to whether a constitutional reform passed by Congress and ratified by two thirds of state legislatures can be overturned by an amparo ruling (as in this case) or if the Supreme Court can declare a constitutional reform unconstitutional; it has never been tried but precedents indicate that the Court does not review constitutional reforms, except for defects in the legislative procedure used to pass and ratify said reforms.
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