The SCJN will continue working with the current 11 ministers

Gustavo Castillo Garcia

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, September 20, 2024, p. 6

Following the logic behind the agreement that the two chambers will continue to function temporarily, the plenary session of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) will have to work with 11 justices until the nine are elected by popular vote, explained Justice Lenia Batres Guadarrama.

Interviewed after her colleagues on the Court rejected her proposal to set up a transition table to operate in accordance with the provisions of the reform to the Judicial Branch (but agreed that each issue will be resolved with the participation of the plenary), Batres Guadarrama said that the members of the highest court have yet to decide whether the plenary will operate with 11 members as defined in the text prior to the constitutional amendment.

Batres Guadarrama said: I believe that we will resolve accordingly in a harmonious manner with the previous text, and the day that a plenary session of origin with nine members is formed, it will operate with this new constitutional text literally..

Asked about the manner in which the reform will be implemented, Batres Guadarrama explained that the plenary will resolve the points that arise in each private session.

He revealed that in the private session last Monday the integration of the plenary session was put up for debate and the number of ministers needed to generate a majoritysince one interpretation indicates that when the reform came into force, the majority to declare the unconstitutionality of a law would be six votes and not eight, as established in the previous text.

He indicated that to solve this problem There are two options: one is to continue holding sessions as the previous text was, and the other is to operate as the current rule is.and considered that the logic that was followed with the rooms will be applied.

Minister Alberto Pérez Dayán considered that the SCJN is experiencing a analysis stage as to what it is required to implement once the reform comes into force. He added that It is still not clear to put it into practice.