Politics: Two Seats to Fill on High Court
President Enrique Peña Nieto has sent the Senate two alternative lists of candidates from which to choose the two people who are to fill vacancies on the Supreme Court being left by Justices Olga Sánchez Cordero and Juan Silva Meza, who are concluding their 15-year terms on the bench. This is the second opportunity President Peña has had to nominate justices to the high court after he proposed a replacement following the death of Supreme Court Justice Sergio Valls in December 2014.
Such nominations have been taking on greater importance since the constitutional reform of 1994 that made the Supreme Court a constitutional court. As a result it has spent the past 21 years consolidating its role as an arbiter between the various political actors and levels of government. In that capacity, the Court has become a mechanism for resolving legislative impasses. On certain issues that Congress has yet to fully address, the High Court has assumed that role, and through its constitutional interpretations, has established new legal conditions or forced Congress to legislate.
In its role as constitutional court, the Supreme Court has exercised its powers to force lawmakers to legislate in keeping with the constitutional principles that the High Court is obligated to defend, on behalf of minorities whose rights have yet to be codified in law.
One of the short lists President Peña has sent the Senate consists of women with extensive experience in the judicial system, in which they have spent their entire professional careers. The three men that the second short comprises have more varied backgrounds than those on the first list and not all of them have a history of participating directly in the court system.
The next two justices will participate in an increasingly active court that is assuming greater responsibilities. These are not circumscribed strictly to the resolution of political conflicts but rather extend to the renovation and modernization of the judicial branch, which is currently in transit toward a new model of an accusatory criminal justice system that should be in place next year.
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