Mexico: The New Supreme Court Takes Office

Greenberg Traurig - In compliance with the Judicial Reform approved in September 2024, the new composition of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation ("SJCN") began operating on September 1, 2025, modifying the structure and operation of the SCJN as a result of the reduction from eleven to nine justices and the elimination of its Chambers.

Consequently, on September 4, 2025, the SCJN issued the Rules of Session of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation and the Integration of the Lists of Matters with Draft Resolutions and General Agreement 1/2025 (12a) of the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which Regulates the Reception, Registration, and Settlement of Matters within its Jurisdiction. This regulation governs the functioning of the SCJN as follows:

I. Plenary Sessions.
As a general rule, sessions will be public; exceptionally, they may be private, when so determined by the President.

The SCJN will hold sessions as follows:
• Monday and Tuesday: These sessions will be devoted to constitutional disputes, unconstitutionality actions, appeals for non-compliance, incidents of non-execution of judgments, general declarations of constitutionality, contradictions of criteria, constitutionality of popular consultations, appeals for review in matters of national security, trials related to fiscal coordination, and matters related to compliance with judgments of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

• Wednesday: Criminal and civil matters will be discussed.

• Thursday: Administrative and labor matters will be resolved.

II. Agenda.
The list of matters to be resolved will be classified into the following categories:

• Urgent matters: which will include the ex officio review of Presidential Decrees on the suspension of rights and guarantees;
• Priority matters: related to the defense of vulnerable groups, matters related to economic competition, the environment, or those determined by the SCJN;
• Matters requiring priority attention: related to the deprivation of liberty, the rights of indigenous peoples, the rights of minors, collective agrarian trials, and electoral matters; and
• Final matters: related to tax and criminal matters, and others.

III. Draft Resolutions.
Draft resolutions on items will be published when the session list that includes them is distributed. These draft resolutions may be removed from the list at the justified request of the speaker. They may also be replaced, in whole or in part, up to one business day before the session.

IV. Reception, Registration, and Handling of New Matters.
Matters will be handled using an automated system, in chronological order, with balanced distribution of quantity and category among the papers, unless the newly submitted matter is linked or related to an existing matter in a paper.

Promotions to the SCJN may be submitted:
 
i. In person, at the Office of Judicial Certification and Correspondence, at Common Correspondence Offices, or at any of the offices of the Federal Judicial Branch within the Republic; or,
 
ii. Electronically, through the Electronic System of the Federal Judicial Branch.
Upon registration, the promotion will be identified with a Quintana Roo code that will allow interested parties to review the matter from its receipt to its resolution.

V.  Shift of Existing Matters.
Justices Lenia Batres, Yasmín Esquivel, and Loretta Ortiz will continue to hear the matters previously referred to their committees.

Justices María Estela Ríos and Giovanni Figueroa will be assigned the matters originally referred to the committees of retired Justices Jorge Mario Pardo Rebolledo and Juan Luis González Alcántara.

The remaining matters will be reassigned through the automated system among the other committees, according to the votes they received in the electoral process and the chronological order of receipt based on the submission date, until the workloads are balanced.

The assignment of these matters will be published in official electronic media and on the benches of the SCJN.

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