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By KELIN DILLON

On Thursday, Oct. 31, just one day after it was approved in Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, the Mexican Senate voted to pass a constitutional reform preventing challenges to the Mexican Constitution and its amendments.

“The decree amending Article 107 and adding a fifth paragraph to Article 105 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States on the subject of non-impeachability is approved,” said Senate President of the Board of Directors Gerardo Fernández Noroña. “It is submitted to the Official Journal of the Federation for publication. It is an unprecedented day, and it is a historic day.”

The reform explicitly limits the ability of the judicial branch to issue suspensions against aspects of the federal constitution, a topic that caused contentious arguments between the in-power National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and members of opposition parties during the voting session.

“What we did was reaffirm what the constitution already says: the non-challengeability, the inadmissibility of appeals and actions against reforms and additions to the constitution,” defended Morena Coordinator Ricardo Monreal after the vote.

With the legislation’s passage, Mexico’s judicial branch is now severely limited in its ability to challenge the controversial judicial reform to popularly elect judges championed by former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO).