Judicial transition will leave the Supreme Court and the PJF without holders for almost a day

Iván Evair Saldaña

La Jornada newspaper
Monday, August 4, 2025, p. 6

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) and the main bodies of the Judicial Power of the Federation (PJF) will be without holders for almost a day, since the current judges will conclude their commission at 23:59 on August 31 and their successors will assume functions after 7:30 p.m. on September 1, once they give protest in the Senate.

Jurists of the Faculty of Law of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) agreed in an interview with The day In that the emptiness of judges will not generate major consequences, provided there are previous agreements between the outgoing and the incoming conformation, although they warned that the situation will represent some important challenges.

Lawyer Francisco Burgoa Perea said the judicial reform had a lousy design Not adequately foresee the transition in the Judicial Branch of the Federation (PJF), since it did not contemplate the emptiness of holders or guaranteed the appointment of the members of the Judicial Administration bodies (OAJ) by the current Court.

However, he considered that the absence of acting ministers on September 1 will not have serious consequencesin the same way that happened in 1995, when, after the reform of the then president Ernesto Zedillo, the Court remained 26 days without members, without this generating a crisis.

What did qualify as worrying is that Currently, the substantiation of affairs has been detained for months. I think that is really serious, how this issue of the resolution of matters was not foreseen in the reform.

Burgoa considered indispensable, although he sees it difficultthat the outgoing ministers achieve an agreement with the entrants to define the appointment of three of the five members of the OAJ, who will administer all the resources of the PJF.

For his part, Jaime Cárdenas Gracia, a research professor at UNAM, warned that special attention to the District Courts must be paid, since in the face of the temporary fault of judges, it will be the secretaries who must attend urgent protection in criminal matters.

I believe that the most delicate part is not so much the Court or the Court of Discipline or the magistrates of the collegiate or unitary courts, but especially in the district courts, where amparos are promoted (…) where it is claimed that there is a detainee and that some suspension must be grantedCárdenas explained.

The Senate scheduled that at 7:30 p.m., in permanent session, he will take protest to the nine ministers chosen by the popular vote, as well as the electoral magistrates and the court of judicial discipline, and later will do so with magistrates and district judges.