Overview

• The SCJN plenary overturned two lower-court protections and validated the fifth transitory article directing officials to discard pending requests for new mining concessions.
• Minister Lenia Batres authored the decisions, stating the measure is not retroactive because a filing confers only an expectation rather than an acquired right.
• Ministers Giovanni Figueroa Mejía and Arístides Rodrigo Guerrero García dissented, with Guerrero arguing the case should be reviewed on the merits instead of being dismissed.
• Court president Hugo Aguilar Ortiz said private applicants lack standing to allege a breach of the democratic-deliberation principle and emphasized legislative authority over the reforms.
• The cases represent the new bench’s first substantive review of the April 28, 2023 extractive-sector reforms, with one matter debated for over an hour and a second approved without discussion.