Ministers appoint Norma Lucía Piña as president of the Supreme Court

Minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández was appointed president of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) and of the Federal Judicial Council (CJF) for the period from yesterday until December 31, 2026; she succeeds Minister Arturo Zaldívar in office.

It is the first time in the history of the country’s highest constitutional court that a woman presides over it.

In ballot voting, the minister obtained six votes up to the third round; her contender Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena reached five votes.

The successor to Arturo Zaldívar offered in her first message as president a representation based on legal and personal tools.

“By decision of my colleagues and colleagues, I assume the maximum responsibility to which as a Mexican, lawyer, jurist, member of the Federal Judiciary I can aspire. I assume it aware of its complexity and in view of this, although magic and illusionism seem like magic, what I offer is a representation based on the tools that have guided me, on what I am, on what we are as judges and judges: I study , reflection, action, self-criticism, honesty, empathy.

“Thus, with what we know and are, taking firm steps, walking together, I am convinced that we will know how to take advantage of the opportunity that any challenge represents for the benefit of the Judiciary of the Federation, for the benefit of our country, for the benefit of Mexico,” she stated.

break glass ceiling

He announced that he will also represent women.

“The representation that is entrusted to me has a double dimension, a double responsibility, it represents you, ministers and ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, advisers and advisers of the Federal Judiciary. At the same time, being the first woman to preside over this highest court, I also represent women”.

And he thanked the ministers for “congruence.”

“I recognize the all-important determination of the majority of this full court to break what seemed like an inaccessible glass ceiling.

She said she felt “accompanied, supported, agreed” by all the women; “I feel very strong because I know that we are all here, we placed ourselves for the first time at the center of the horseshoe of this plenary court, showing and showing ourselves that we can.

“I thank those who have always believed, those who have not tired of trying changes that little by little corner our patriarchal culture.”

She announced that women “will work, we will strive every day for a fairer, more egalitarian society, without violence against women; That is a wish, there is no doubt about it”.

She assured that she did not feel “victorious or triumphant”, but rather “honored, committed, responsible, legally and morally obliged” to “represent the Judiciary of the Federation with conviction and dedication, with passion and honesty, as I have tried to do for the last 34 years. of my life, within this great institution to which I owe so much and that I love so much”.

The result of the vote that led her to preside over the Court, she explained, is the product of an arduous internal process, “a mirror of the national, and consequently institutional, complexity that we are experiencing.”

He stressed that regarding the appointment of Zaldívar’s successor “the panorama has been uncertain until the last moment.

Uncertainty is a presupposition of freedom. We dialogue, we disagree, we build, and finally we decide”.

As when the ministers vote on a draft sentence, he added, in the decision there are also reservations in the considerations derived from the plurality, which “represents, without a doubt, one of the great riches of this collegiate body.”

endorse appointment

The presidents of the Chamber of Senators and Deputies, Alejandro Armenta and Santiago Creel, respectively, as well as the national leaders of Morena, PAN and PRI, Mario Delgado, Marko Cortés and Alejandro Moreno congratulated Piña Hernández and highlighted the fact that for first time in the history of Mexico a woman has been appointed president of the Court.

“I wish you the greatest success in your new responsibility and I endorse your full willingness to collaborate as representatives of State powers, under the inexorable principle of a Democratic Constitutional State,” Creel posted on social networks.

Via Twitter, Armenta wished “the greatest success in this task in favor of justice and equality for all Mexicans.”

Some autonomous bodies such as the National Electoral Institute, as well as the Inai also congratulated the minister president for her appointment.

politica@eleconomista.mx