Latest news with #supremecourt
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Indigenous lawyer to head Mexico's supreme court after direct election
An Indigenous lawyer from the state of Oaxaca is set to become the president of Mexico's supreme court following the country's unprecedented elections to appoint its entire judicial system by popular vote. Activists hailed the election of Hugo Aguilar, a member of the Mixtec Indigenous group, as a symbolic victory – while noting that Aguilar, who topped the poll of candidates for the supreme court – had long since shifted from his own roots as an activist to a figure much more closely aligned with the state, and involved in controversial mega-projects such as the Maya Train. '[Aguilar] is a brilliant lawyer,' wrote Joaquín Galván, a defender of Indigenous rights in Oaxaca, on X. 'But while they say we the Indigenous are represented in him, in reality he has spent almost 20 years operating for the government, not for [Indigenous] peoples.' Sunday's vote was the result of a radical reform by the governing Morena party, which said it would reduce corruption and impunity in the judicial system by making it more responsive to popular opinion. But the concept was challenged by critics who said it would destroy the separation of powers and could flood the judicial system with unqualified candidates backed by opaque interests. Many career judges chose not to run. Roughly 2,600 posts, from local magistrates to supreme court justices, were up for grabs. Given the sheer number of positions and candidates involved, critics had warned that a low turnout was likely. Parts of the opposition also called for a boycott. In the event, just 13% of Mexicans voted, a record low in a federal election. 'The turnout was frankly meagre,' said Javier Martín Reyes, a constitutional law professor at Mexico's Unam university. 'The government has tried to argue that voters were demanding this reform. But this has been proven false.' Sheinbaum described the process as 'a complete success', adding: 'Mexico is the most democratic country in the world.' There was evidence of illegal party interference in the elections through the distribution of cheat sheets telling people how to vote, largely with the names of the government's favoured candidates. All nine of the new justices on the supreme court were included on such cheat sheets. Most have ties to the governing party, meaning it may no longer act as a check on Morena's executive power, as it has in the past. Aguilar is among them, having served as a senior official at the National Institute for Indigenous Peoples during the government of Sheinbaum's predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. One of Aguilar's campaign promises was to promote justice for Indigenous communities and the environment – yet under López Obrador he coordinated consultations for mega-projects such as the Maya Train and the Interoceanic Corridor, a train-and-port system to connect trade between the Pacific and the Atlantic, that were riddled with irregularities. Two other candidates with previous ties to Morena are María Ríos, who served as legal counsel to López Obrador when he was president, and Irving Espinosa, who was an adviser to Morena lawmakers. Three sitting justices who decided to run were all re-elected: Lenia Batres, Yasmín Esquivel and Loretta Ortiz. All three were initially nominated by López Obrador and have largely voted in favour of Morena governments. It is not certain how justices with past ties to Morena will vote, but if they band together they could give Sheinbaum a decisive majority on Mexico's highest court. Even those with more independent profiles might fear to go against the executive, said Martín Reyes. 'Morena and its allies have a supermajority, they can change the constitution at any moment, start political trials, remove [the justices'] immunity,' said Martín Reyes. 'These people will live under the threat of sanction.' The National Electoral Institute will continue to release results over the next week, including for the powerful new disciplinary tribune, tasked with supervising judges, and the top electoral court. Preliminary results suggest Morena may have significant influence in the first of those, too. 'These elections were a failure and a success,' said Martín Reyes. 'A failure in terms of democratic participation – but a success in terms of political capture.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge says Democrat's North Carolina election win must stand
North Carolina election officials must certify Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of a state supreme court election, a federal judge ruled on Monday, a significant development in the only race that has remained undecided from last year. Riggs, who currently sits on the court, defeated Jefferson Griffin, a Republican appellate judge, by 734 votes last November. Multiple recounts confirmed her win. But after election day, Griffin challenged more than 60,000 votes, mostly in Democratic-leaning counties, saying that election officials had wrongly allowed them to count. Richard Myers II, a district judge and Trump appointee, agreed with Riggs and said that Griffin was essentially trying to change the rules of the election after election day. Related: Democrat accuses Republicans of 'power grab' in North Carolina voting rights cases 'This case concerns whether the federal constitution permits a state to alter the rules of an election after the fact and apply those changes retroactively to only a select group of voters, and in so doing treat those voters differently than other similarly situated individuals. This case is also about whether a state may redefine its class of eligible voters but offer no process to those who may have been misclassified as ineligible,' Myers wrote in his opinion. 'To this court, the answer to each of those questions is 'no.'' Griffin's challenges focused on three groups of voters. The largest was tens of thousands of people whose voter records lacked a driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security numbers. A few thousand more were overseas voters who had failed to provide photo ID. There was also a smaller group of voters who were labeled 'never residents' – people who had turned 18 while living abroad and claimed North Carolina as their residence. It was clear from the start that many of the challenged voters were eligible to cast a ballot. Riggs's parents were among those challenged. The Guardian and other news outlets spoke to several challenged 'never residents' who said they were temporarily abroad, had lived in North Carolina, and were confused about why they were being challenged. What was seen as a quixotic effort quickly turned into concern for voting advocates when the North Carolina court of appeals ruled in Griffin's favor, saying more than 60,000 voters had to prove their eligibility. The North Carolina supreme court later narrowed the number of ballots at issue to around 1,500. The fact that courts were even willing to entertain a post-election effort to challenge rules set well in advance of voting, experts said, is an alarming development and may lay out a playbook to overturn future elections. 'You establish the rules before the game. You don't change them after the game is done,' Myers wrote. He also paused his opinion for seven days to give Griffin a chance to appeal. Griffin's campaign told the Associated Press Monday night they were evaluating the ruling. 'Today, we won. I'm proud to continue upholding the constitution and the rule of law as North Carolina's supreme court justice,' Riggs said in a statement.
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Republican finally concedes 2024 North Carolina supreme court race
The Republican candidate for a state supreme court race in North Carolina has conceded the election after more than six months of contesting the results. For months, Jefferson Griffin, currently judge on the North Carolina court of appeals, had fought in courts to try and overturn his 734-vote loss to Allison Riggs in November. Last month, the North Carolina supreme court said that more than 1,300 voters who had successfully cast ballots had to prove their eligibility or else they would be thrown out. On Monday, a federal judge blocked that ruling and ordered state election officials to certify the election. 'While I do not fully agree with the District Court's analysis, I respect the court's holding – just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,' Griffin said in a statement to the Associated Press. 'I will not appeal the court's decision. I wish my opponent the best and will continue to pray for her and all the members of our court system here in North Carolina. I look forward to continuing to serve the people of North Carolina.' The prolonged legal contest has raised significant alarm among legal observers because it could lay out a playbook to try to overturn election results after voting has concluded. The Associated Press called winners in more than 4,400 races last year. The Griffin-Riggs race was the only one that remained uncalled. After the election, Griffin sought to have some 65,000 votes thrown out. Even though voters had not done anything wrong, his lawyers argued that the rules state election officials had set well in advance of the election were illegal. More than 60,000 of the challenges involves votes from people who lacked either a driver's license number or the last four digits of their social security number in their voting record. He also challenged the votes of overseas voters who had cast a ballot without providing photo ID and people classified as 'never residents' – children of North Carolina residents who turned 18 while living abroad.
