MEXICO CITY  -  A majority of Mexico’s Supreme Court judges have submitted their resignations and declined to stand for election under controversial judicial reforms, the top court said Wednesday.

In a move that has sparked opposition street protests and diplomatic tensions, Mexico is set to become the world’s only country to allow voters to choose all judges, at every level, starting next year. Eight of 11 Supreme Court justices -- including president Norma Pina -- decided not to seek election in June 2025, a statement said, adding that most of the resignations would take effect next August. The announcement came as the Supreme Court prepares to consider a proposal to invalidate the election of judges and magistrates. President Claudia Sheinbaum, however, has said that the court lacks the authority to reverse a constitutional reform approved by Congress. “Eight people intend to change a reform about the people of Mexico... Do they realize the magnitude?” she told a news conference Wednesday. A day earlier Sheinbaum suggested the judges’ real motive was to protect their retirement benefits. “If they resign now, they will leave with all their retirement benefits,” Sheinbaum said. “If they do not resign now, they will no longer have their retirement benefits... which is a lot of money,” she added.

Former president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who enacted the reforms in September before leaving office, argued the changes were needed to clean up a “rotten” judiciary serving the interests of the political and economic elite. Critics fear that elected judges could be swayed by politics and vulnerable to pressure from powerful drug cartels that regularly use bribery and intimidation to influence officials.

During his six years in office, Lopez Obrador often criticized the Supreme Court, which impeded some of his policies in areas such as energy and security. Sheinbaum, a close ally of Lopez Obrador who became Mexico’s first woman president on October 1, strongly supported the judicial reforms. The changes sparked diplomatic friction with key economic partners the United States and Canada, upset financial markets and prompted a series of protests by judicial workers and other opponents.

Washington warned the reforms threatened a relationship that relies on investor confidence in the Mexican legal framework.