Judges are doubly obliged to respect the Constitution, says AMLO

MEXICO CITY.- The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obradoraccused this Monday the judges who do not agree with his controversy reform of the judiciary of being once morest the Constitution and noted that they are “doubly obliged” to respect it.

“If they oppose that (the reform) they are once morest the Constitution, it is basic,” said the president during his morning press conference.

The Mexican president’s statements come following magistrates and judges of the Judiciary announced last week that prepare a legal strategy to challenge the reform promoted by López Obrador, which seeks to elect judges throughout the country by popular vote.

Last Friday, regarding 250 members of the Judicial power of the Federation (PJF) demonstrated outside the Palace of Justice of San Lazaroand warned that if the reform is approved in the terms proposed by the Mexican president, they will respond with challenges in Mexican and international courts.

In this regard, the president pointed out that judges and magistrates are “in their right to demonstrate, to express themselves, they are free” but he added that they are “doubly obliged to respect the Constitution” as authorities.

He said that the reform he proposes is “completely constitutional” and is a matter of living in a real sense of rights and in practice.

He said that if they did not want to be subject to public scrutiny, “they should have already voluntarily resigned from their posts.”

“There is no need to be afraid of the people, nor of the reforms. And there is no need to accept blackmail, nothing happens, nothing, nothing, nothing, the people of Mexico are very responsible,” he said.

Regarding the overrepresentation in Congress, which according to the magistrates, consists of the ruler National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and allied parties are hoping that with the 52% of the votes obtained on June 2, they will reach more than 70% of the positions (500 in total) in the Chamber of Deputies, he said that this is “a constitutional principle.”

“That was the case when I won, not in the last election for deputies, that was the case in 2018 but that was also the case before and how are they going to change it now? They just have to reform the Constitution, now, as the lawyers say, they should not force us to read the article to them,” he said ironically.

The judicial reform proposes not only the election by popular vote of the members of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), but also of the members of the Electoral Court of the PJF and, in general, of all federal and local judges.

In addition to the creation of a new Judicial Disciplinary Court and the elimination of the Council of the Federal Judicaturethe administrative body of the Judiciary.

Last Tuesday, López Obrador highlighted the popular legitimacy of the reform following the June 2 election, in which the ruling party Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo won with a record of almost 36 million votes, nearly 60% of the total, and the ruling party alliance will have ‘supermajorities’ in Congress to modify the Constitution without negotiating.

With this, the ruling party will seek to approve the reform in September, when there will be a new Congress, but before Sheinbaum’s inauguration on October 1.

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