Supreme Court Justice Batres Proposes Tax Issues be Discussed Openly, Not in Secret.

This article by Darren Garcia appeared in the June 19, 2025 edition of Revista Contralínea

With the imminent conclusion of the current Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN), Justice Lenia Batres Guadarrama will propose that “all fiscal matters be voted on in the Plenary Session itself ,” and not in secret as is the case in the Chambers.

“Given the imminent end of the current Court’s term, I will request that all tax matters still pending resolution in the Chambers be addressed in public sessions of the Plenary, instead of private sessions in which the reasons for tax deductions, exemptions, or refunds are obscure (and unjustified, from my point of view), as has been resolved most frequently in recent sessions,” she wrote on her X account, where she shared a statement.

In her brief, Minister Batres argued that these cases entail a very high cost to the public treasury, which is why she was absent from the scheduled session of the Second Chamber of the SCJN on Wednesday, June 18, which was to decide whether to approve appeal 158/2025 . If approved as well-founded, this appeal “would mean a loss of 4 billion 442 million 423 thousand 90 pesos for the federal treasury .”

This case, proposed by Minister Javier Laynez Potisek , president of that Chamber, “would lead to the dismissal of the direct appeal for review 1172/2025 and allow this substantial deduction in favor of the company Pegaso, PCS, SA de CV , for the concept of tax amortization of deferred expenses from the 2014 fiscal year,” Batres Guadarrama accused in the information note 54/2025.

Beyond that, the minister explained that “Minister Laynez’s proposal proposes not to delve into the merits of the matter, stating that the case does not raise any constitutional issues, which is why the Supreme Court of Justice should dismiss it, ignoring the fact that Article 31 of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States clearly states that it is an obligation to contribute to the public treasury.”

The chambers of the Supreme Court require a quorum, or the presence of four justices to hold sessions, discuss, and vote on the matters of the day.

Jazmín Bonilla García, Secretary of Agreements, stated that “given the absence of one of the ministers serving on this chamber, there is no quorum to continue with the list today.” And the presiding minister of the Second Chamber, Javier Laynez Potisek, called for the meeting to be held on July 2 .

A month ago, on May 21, Minister Batres Guadarrama was also involved in a tax issue, when the First Chamber of the SCJN decided, by a majority of four votes to one, that she was barred from participating in the vote on the amparo appeal (5654/2024) filed by Grupo Elektra, regarding a tax credit of 1.431 billion pesos that the company seeks to avoid.

The argument was that the minister had already made a clear position, made public in various statements against Ricardo Salinas Pliego, the owner of the company, reason enough for the majority of ministers to impose this impediment (on 30/2024).