A year after judicial election, ministers and judges have yet to gain legitimacy, Cossío says

One year after Mexico’s elected ministers, magistrates and judges took office, they still have not secured legitimacy, retired Supreme Court minister José Ramón Cossío Díaz said. He also pointed to a backlog of roughly 60% of pending cases.

In an interview with El Universal after an event marking the first anniversary of the Justice Observatory, Cossío described the first year as having “many bright and dark spots.” He said the Supreme Court and the judges chosen in the election had expected the vote itself to legitimize them, but that this had not happened.

Only 10% of citizens listed on the electoral roll took part in the judicial election, Cossío said. He also referred to the use of “cheat sheets,” known in Mexico as acordeones, arguing that the controversy left the new judges politically weakened.

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Many bright and dark spots, because I really believe that the Supreme Court and the judges who were elected have not been able to legitimize themselves. They thought they would gain legitimacy simply through the election, and I do not think that happened.

Cossío said the only way for the judges to gain legitimacy was through their rulings. In his view, they had issued too few decisions while the courts faced a large backlog, which he said the judiciary’s own figures put at about 60%.

At the academic event, former ministers and judges described the first year of the judicial reform as a measurable setback marked by excess and waste. They contrasted the purchase of luxury vehicles for ministers with the lack of basic resources, including computers and copiers, in many courts across the country.

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The only way to legitimize themselves is through their rulings.