Mexico Update: Important dates for the election of judges and justices of the peace | Fisher Phillips

Mexico: The Judicial Reform Decree includes more than 100 changes made by the Chamber of Deputies following the Open Parliamentary Forums held in recent days, highlighting the following:

• The dictum provides for the extraordinary election of judges and magistrates, expected to take place in 2025, and proposes to reduce the plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) to nine ministers and renew its presidency every two years.
• It is proposed that the reform of the judiciary be implemented gradually and in stages. In the first phase in 2025, half of the posts will be filled, and the other half will be filled in the ordinary elections in 2027.

Proposes two elections for justices of the peace and judges

• In order to select the positions that need to be renewed in the 2025 election, the Federal Council of the Judiciary will provide the Senate with a list of all judge positions, broken down by judicial district, specialization, gender and all other necessary information.
• The House of Lords determines the proportion of positions to be filled in each judicial district, taking into account primarily vacancies, resignations and planned retirements.
• The remaining positions shall be selected by the Legislature through a public lottery based on the renewal of half of the positions for each specialization field.

Positions to be renewed in 2025

• The renewal of the nine ministers of the Supreme Court of the Nation will be decided by referendum, in accordance with its new integration. This also applies to all judges of the five regional chambers of the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary, as well as the vacant judge positions of the Supreme Chamber.

Positions to be renewed in 2027

• In 2027, the judgeships of the Supreme Chamber of the Electoral Court and the remaining half of the positions of district and regional judges will be elected.
• The proposal provides for the establishment of continuity mechanisms so that currently serving district judges can be elected to the same position for a new term without having to participate in the evaluation and selection processes for nominations.
• Ministers serve three terms of office: eight, eleven and 14 years; judges and justices of the peace serve nine years.