MEXICO CITY — In a series of dramatic televised hearings over the last month, 11 men and women in black robes have given the Mexican people something they are unaccustomed to seeing -- an activist Supreme Court.
Key rulings by the court have produced a subtle but important shift in Mexico's political landscape. The court has reined in one of the nation's most powerful business interests and is moving against two rogue governors.
Gone are the staid and arcane proceedings of times past, replaced with impassioned speeches from the bench about democracy and the rule of law. Several times this month, the chambers have been filled with a noise rarely heard since the modern court's creation in 1917: the sound of applause.
On Thursday, the court agreed to create a committee to investigate the political violence and disorder in the southern state of Oaxaca, ruled by the almost universally reviled Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
On Monday, it's scheduled to begin considering whether it should form a similar panel to investigate Puebla Gov. Mario Marin, absolved by lower courts of abuse-of-power charges in the case of an investigative journalist arrested in his state.
"Oaxaca may no longer be in flames, but it still burns internally," Justice Genaro Gongora Pimentel said from the bench as the court discussed the chaos that enveloped the state capital last year, in which 20 people were killed. "Oaxacan society is waiting for justice.... Our intervention is necessary."
Analysts say the court is acting because President Felipe Calderon and a divided Congress have failed to move against entrenched interests and corrupt local leaders. Though most of its members were appointed by Mexico's previous two presidents, and all were confirmed by Congress, public outrage has forced the court to act, analysts say.
"The court is stepping up to the plate to fill a worrisome void," said John Ackerman, a law professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Ackerman said the court's recent actions were unprecedented in Mexican history.
A strong, independent Supreme Court is a relatively recent creation in Mexican jurisprudence, Ackerman said. For much of the 20th century, a single political party controlled all branches of government here. Not until judicial reform in 1994 did the court get broad powers to make decisions that have the force of law.
