Mexico's Supreme Court has a new chief justice, and for the first time, it has its first female president. Justice Norma Lucia Pina makes history as she becomes the highest-ranking judge in the country.

According to Reuters, Pina on Monday won by a 6-5 majority vote to head Mexico's highest court amid a succession procedure clouded by claims of plagiarism against another justice competing for the position.

Pina is not considered an ally of Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, also known by his initials AMLO. 

Pina was known for pushing back against the government's nationalist energy agenda. The new chief justice has butted heads with AMLO over renewable energy issues.

While the president favored the country's state-run, fossil-fuel-dependent energy firms, Pina has reportedly defended Mexico's transition to renewable energy.

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Plagiarism Scandal That May Have Guaranteed First Female Supreme Court Chief Justice Norma Lucia Pina's Victory

Norma Lucia Pina was sworn in for her four-year term as the head of the Supreme Court's 11-member panel. She replaced outgoing Chief Justice Arturo Zaldivar, who finished his term on December 31.

Pina has vowed to maintain the independence of Mexico's highest court.

"Judicial independence is indispensable in resolving conflicts between the branches of government," said Pina, adding that her main proposal was to work to build majorities and set aside her personal vision.

AMLO has placed much pressure on the Supreme Court as he backed another female justice, Yasmin Esquivel, to become the new chief justice.

However, Esquivel was caught in a plagiarism scandal last month. She had allegedly plagiarized her undergraduate thesis in the late 1980s.

The embattled justice is under investigation by her alma mater, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

According to VOA News, Esquivel may have plagiarized an academic paper to get her bachelor's degree. Her 1987 thesis was similar to one presented a year earlier. 

She vehemently denied the accusation, claiming the earlier thesis copied her later work. Even AMLO slammed the plagiarism report, calling it politically motivated.

The Mexican president has also been pressuring the Supreme Court to back his policies, and getting an ally elected as chief justice could make that happen.

AMLO claimed Monday that the judicial branch "has been kidnapped" and "eclipsed by money" and "economic power."

AMLO had sought to make greater state control over the country's energy sector, which was part of his economic agenda, and the Supreme Court was standing in his way.

According to Al Jazeera, AMLO also accused his predecessors of implementing policies that favored private companies.

The Supreme Court invalidated several key portions of his energy plan as it pointed out that the government had a constitutional obligation to cut the country's carbon footprint.

AMLO's energy policies have also brought him into disputes with other North American countries.

The United States and Canada have claimed that AMLO's policies placed the U.S. and Canada-based companies at a disadvantage, and violate the region's various trade agreements.

Who Is Chief Justice Norma Lucia Pina of Mexico?

Before becoming a judge, Norma Lucia Pina was a professor of Primary Education pedagogy at the Benemérita Escuela Nacional de Maestros in Mexico City in 1978.

She became a lawyer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in 1984. She soon rose to the ranks, becoming a clerk for the Supreme Court from 1992 to 1998.

She then became a judge for the third district of the State of Morelos from 1998 to 2000. 

Pina tried to be a Supreme Court justice thrice, with the third being a success. She replaced Olga Sánchez Cordero in November 2015, and the rest is history.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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