Eight of the eleven members of Mexico’s Supreme Court are resigning in protest against the controversial judicial review

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Eight judges of Mexico’s Supreme Court have said they will leave the court rather than run for office as required by a controversial judicial review implemented last month.

Supreme Court President Norma Piña and seven others submitted letters on Tuesday and Wednesday declaring they would leave their posts rather than run in judicial elections scheduled for June next year.

The three other judges of the court have indicated that they will participate in the elections. Previously, Supreme Court justices were elected by the Senate.

Last month, The Mexican Congress has been adopted – and a majority of states ratified then-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s initiative to subject all the country’s judges to elections.

López Obrador and his allies, including his successor Claudia Sheinbaum, have said this the radical change will help rid the justice system of corruption. However, critics say the courts will become less independent and more subject to political forces.

The resignation came before the House of Representatives of Congress approved another constitutional amendment later Wednesday that would protect constitutional changes such as the judicial review from legal challenges. The Supreme Court will take up such a challenge in the coming days.

The amendment was adopted with 343 votes in favor and 129 against. The Senate had previously passed the legislation.

Business sectors in particular had expressed concern that the change would weaken the rule of law. Mexican employers’ association Coparmex had said in a statement before the vote that the initiative “jeopardizes the fundamental guarantees that have protected citizens for decades.”

López Obrador clashed with the courts during his six years in office, as they repeatedly rejected some of his initiatives. He excoriated the judges during his daily morning news conferences, and Sheinbaum, his protégé, has continued in the same vein.

Sheinbaum had joked on Tuesday that if Supreme Court justices did not resign now before the close of registration for judicial candidates in November, they could lose their pensions. “It’s a lot of money,” she said.

The Associated Press