rolando herrera
Reform Agency
Sunday, January 01, 2023 | 11:44
Mexico City.– The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) will receive 2023 with one of the most important decisions for its internal life, tomorrow, January 2, the Plenary, made up of 11 ministers, will elect who will be the new president who will head not only to the Highest Court, but also to the Federal Judicial Council.
Five of the 11 ministers that make up the collegiate body ran for office: Norma Piña, Yasmín Esquivel, Alfredo Gutiérrez, Alberto Pérez Dayán and Javier Laynez, who aspire to be the head of the Judiciary for the next four years.
One of the main challenges of the new president of the Court will be to ensure the independence of the Judiciary which, during this six-year term, as had never happened before, has been questioned by its resolutions from the Presidency of the Republic.
Whoever exercises the Presidency will do so from the time he makes a protest and until December 31, 2026.
In accordance with the Internal Regulations, the election of the new president or president will be held in a public session in which the winner must obtain at least six of the 11 possible votes, if no candidate reaches them in the first vote, a second one will be held. round in which only those who have obtained the highest number of votes will participate.
In the event that again no one obtains at least six votes, the vote will be repeated as many times as necessary until that number is reached. In 2015, in the election of Luis María Aguilar, 32 rounds were required because a tie had persisted in a plenary session that lacked a minister, since the vacancy left by Sergio Valls due to his death had not been filled.
The session will be chaired by the Senior Minister, in this case Luis María Aguilar, who will be assisted by two of his colleagues to count the votes, who will sing them out loud as the ballots are displayed. Once a winner is obtained, the new President will take office and protest before the Plenary.
Of those who signed up to compete, only Esquivel was proposed to be Minister by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Pérez Dayán and Gutiérrez came to the Court together at the end of 2012 proposed by then President Felipe Calderón, while Piña and Laynez did. in 2015 for the nomination of Enrique Peña Nieto.
The possibilities of Esquivel, who is perceived as a person very close to López Obrador, were drastically reduced after the writer and academic Guillermo Sheridan denounced on December 21 that the Minister plagiarized the thesis with which she obtained in 1987 the title of law degree from UNAM.
To be a Minister, the Constitution establishes that one must have a professional degree of law degree with a minimum seniority of 10 years, in addition to having a good reputation and public fame.
The candidates
Ministers who aspire to preside over the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation:
– Norma Piña, proposed by Enrique Peña in 2015. She has voted against relevant issues of the 4T
– Javier Laynez was proposed by Enrique Peña in 2015, with a career in the Judiciary
– Alberto Pérez Dayán, arrived in 2012, during the six-year term of Felipe Calderón, he has a judicial career
– Alfredo Gutiérrez, up in 2012 at the proposal of Felipe Calderón. Former head of the Tax Administration Service. Could with the support of ministers close to the 4T
– Yasmín Esquivel, proposed in 2019 by Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Former president of the Court of Administrative Justice and close to the 4T
