In brief
Mexico's Congress has passed a bill that prohibits legal challenges to constitutional amendments, raising concerns over unchecked power and the potential erosion of judicial independence.
Mexico's lower house of Congress has voted in favor of a controversial bill that effectively eliminates the ability for judicial challenges against constitutional amendments, allowing for extensive changes to the country's constitution without any judicial oversight, including from the Supreme Court. This legislation, which was previously passed by the Senate, has sparked serious backlash from legal experts and human rights advocates, who warn it undermines the principle of judicial review and endows the ruling Morena party with alarming authority to implement significant legal alterations.The specifics of the bill will be finalized in upcoming discussions, and most state legislatures are anticipated to endorse it soon, leading to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's approval for it to become law. The timing of the bill's passage is particularly critical, as tensions are escalating across Mexico's government branches regarding the structure of the judiciary and its essential role in a democratic system.Guadalupe Salmorán Villar, a researcher focused on rule of law and democracy, expressed concerns about the implications of the reform: "If it passes, it places us in a context of unlimited power." Critics argue that this attempt, supported by the Morena party’s majority, is a moves towards politically weakening the judiciary.Olga Sánchez Cordero, a Morena lawmaker, attempted to clarify that while the bill restricts courts from evaluating constitutional amendments' substance, procedural challenges would still be allowed. She emphasized that the current constitution lacks clarity on how to make amendments, asserting that this bill would establish "a clear, explicit, unequivocal mechanism" for such evaluations, aiming to legitimize the changes while sidestepping judicial scrutiny.
