The opinion was approved with three changes

Fernando Camacho and Enrique Mendez

The newspaper La Jornada
Thursday, September 5, 2024, p. 4

In a debate that lasted almost 17 hours, from 4 pm on Tuesday to 10 am yesterday, the Chamber of Deputies approved the constitutional reform to the Judicial Branch of the Federation (PJF), by 357 votes in favor and 130 against. The bill was sent yesterday to the Senate. It was announced that it will be analyzed in committees this Sunday.

The impact of the reform was such that the debate lasted longer overall, with six rounds of voting for and against, although this unprecedented event helped the parties later reduce the list of reserves to just 68.

As expected, the reservations presented by PAN, PRI and MC were rejected by the majority of the governing party, which instead accepted three changes to the ruling, none of them substantive.

The first, presented by Magdalena del Socorro Núñez (PT), on the subject of equality, to include in Article 17 of the Constitution the figure of district and circuit court judges, which in the current text refers exclusively to male judges.

Later, the plenary session admitted another proposal by Deputy Jesús Cuanalo, to allow circuit magistrates and judges not to lose the right to practice their profession in the two years following their departure from office. With the change, the legislator explained, Outside their jurisdiction, judges can work anywhere in the national territory, so that they do not lose the right to practice their profession and, with their experience, continue to enrich the area of ​​law..

This is a change to Article 101 of the Constitution, so as not to limit the rights of circuit magistrates and district judges, so that their right to an equal position outside their current affiliation is not limited.

He explained that, in order to guarantee the impartiality of judges and prevent influence peddling, the Constitution provides that ministers of the Court, magistrates of the Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal, as well as magistrates of the Judicial Power Tribunal, may not, two years after their retirement, act as patrons, lawyers or representatives in any judicial process.

It’s not about judges losing their jobshe noted.

The last accepted reservation modified the tenth transitory article of the opinion and has to do with a compensation equivalent to three months’ salary, plus any benefits to which they are entitled, for circuit magistrates and district judges who conclude their term due to having declined to participate in the election next year, or who are not elected.

In this way, the majority in San Lázaro left out some adjustments to the reform opinion that had been presented in the working group made up of Morena deputies, among them the retired minister Olga Sánchez Cordero, who had considered not including in the Constitution requirements of eligibility and suitability of candidates to occupy a position in the Judicial Branch, such as a minimum grade point average of 8 during the career.

Another issue that was not addressed, although it was announced by Morena coordinator Ricardo Monreal, was the simplification of the ballot format, since in recent days it had been announced that in next year’s election, and depending on the states, voters could receive up to 10 ballots on which they will have to write the name of the candidate of their preference, a mechanism that will lengthen the time in the ballot box.

In the case of the ballots for candidates to join the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation alone, it is expected that there will be 91 names.

At the end of the voting in particular – which took a full hour, because the deputies had to vote one by one, by word of mouth, due to the lack of an electronic counting system – the Morena, PT and PVEM benches celebrated amid slogans such as the reform is going ahead! and yes we did it, yes we did it!