SCJN rejects appeals on amparo trial to suspend judicial reform

Mexico City. The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) rejected three appeals filed by judges and magistrates seeking to have the highest court issue a ruling on whether there was a violation of the amparo trial granted by a district court based in Morelos, and which sought to suspend approval of the ruling on judicial reform.

The Court also rejected another request to declare ministers Lenia Batres, Loretta Ortiz Ahlf and Yasmín Esquivel Mossa disqualified from drafting projects related to this constitutional reform, and rejected a petition to establish a position “in favor of respecting the independence of the Judicial Branch of the Federation and maintaining the current composition of federal judges.”

Through the Notification List, it was announced that in file 2/2024, the Court was requested to exercise its power of attraction “in order for the SCJN to make a pronouncement in relation to the violation of the suspension decreed in amparo trial 1252/2024, of the fifth district court in the state of Morelos, in relation to the opinion with a draft decree by which various provisions of the Political Constitution are reformed, added to and repealed, in matters of reform to the Judicial Branch, approved by the Chamber of Deputies” in which it is considered that “it violates judicial independence and the rule of law.”

The Court’s decision was “there is no reason to provide in accordance with the request for the exercise of the power” of attraction and ordered that the document be submitted to the fifth district court based in Morelos.

Meanwhile, within file 24/2024, in which judges and magistrates that make up the PJF, presented through Jorge Arturo Acosta Argüelles, member of the Third Federal Labor Court for Individual Affairs, requested that “ministers Lenia Batres Guadarrama, Loretta Ortiz Ahlf and Yasmín Esquivel Mossa be declared legally prevented from hearing” a consultation in which a pronouncement from the highest court related to the approval of the reform to the Judicial Branch was sought.

The Court’s decision states that the appeal “is dismissed because the impediment raised by the promoters is clearly inadmissible.”

Meanwhile, in file 2091/2024, in which personnel assigned to the Second Collegiate Court on Labor Matters of the Tenth Circuit, requested that “the SCJN take a position in favor of respecting the independence of the PJF and maintaining the current composition of federal judges; that the necessary actions be taken to preserve the separation of powers established in article 49 of the Political Constitution to ensure that the system of checks and balances between the powers of the Union is not eliminated; and that the SCJN take concrete actions in defense of the autonomy and independence of the PJF based on the international treaties that allow and oblige it to analyze the constitutionality and conventionality of acts such as those undertaken so far and that seek to implement judicial reform, considering that the SCJN itself has established the binding nature of the doctrine contained in the judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and has formed a block of constitutionality that includes both constitutional rights and those established in international treaties ratified by Mexico.”

The Court’s response was “there is no reason to agree in accordance with the request made by the promoters (…) archive this file as a concluded matter,” and in this case the agreement was signed by the President of the Court, Minister Norma Lucía Piña Hernández.