Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena

Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena (born October 14, 1969) is a judge in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, the highest court in Mexico.[1] He is a graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Harvard University. His grandfather, Antonio Ortiz Mena, is Mexico's former Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit.

Biography

Born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena earned his undergraduate law degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and his graduate degree, LL.M. and International Tax Certificate from Harvard University. As a graduate student, he was awarded a scholarship from the Fulbright-García Robles Foundation. He is a member of the Mexican Bar and the New York Bar.

Between 1995 and 2012 Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena worked in several national and international firms, including Covington & Burling, Holland & Knight and White & Case.[2] Afterwards, he was a public servant at the Federal Public Administration in the revenue sector. In November 2012, he was nominated by the President of Mexico to the shortlist of three candidates for a vacated seat on the Supreme Court. His appointment was approved by a 92 percent vote of the Senate.[3] He was installed on December 1, 2012, and he will serve for a fifteen-year period.

Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena was assigned to the First Chamber of the Supreme Court. He has been in charge of writing opinions on a variety of cases; and has specifically delved into the area of civil liberties. Early in his service on the Court, he had a deciding vote in the case of Florence Cassez, a French woman who was arrested in Mexico. In a 3-2 vote, the court ordered her immediate release, ruling that Cassez's rights were violated through unfair media coverage surrounding her arrest.[4]

In a criminal case opinion, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena drafted the final decision that absolutely prohibits torture. The decision states that if anyone is submitted to torture, judges are obliged, on one hand, to analyze the allegation and to determine the consequences of the torture in the criminal procedure, and on the other hand, they must give notice to the competent authorities regarding the alleged torture (Amparo en revisión 703/2012).

In another decision, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena proposed to the Chamber that the mere existence of a law that created an intimidating effect in journalistic work was unconstitutional, due to its lack of specificity and negative effects in the right to access to information (Amparo en revisión 492/2014).

As Presenting Justice for the Plenary of the Supreme Court, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena proposed an opinion, where he interpreted that the 2011 amendment of Article 1 of the Mexican Constitution expanded the jurisdiction of the Court to analyze constitutional matters related not only to the Constitution, but also to every civil liberty recognized in any international treaty ratified by the Mexican State (Contradicción de tesis 21/2011).

Finally, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena was in charge of the opinion of the Plenary of the Supreme Court regarding adoption for same-sex couples (Acción de inconstitucionalidad 8/2014). The decision determined that a law that excludes same-sex couples from adopting children is unconstitutional because it violates children´s rights and the constitutional protection of all family types, and because it is discriminatory on the grounds of marital status and sexual orientation. In October 2014, he was elected President of the Chamber, which position he will hold until September 2016.

He is the grandson of Antonio Ortiz Mena, Mexico's former Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit.[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena" (in Spanish). Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  2. ↑ "Alfredo Gutierrez Ortiz Mena" (PDF). Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  3. 1 2 Robles de la Rosa, Leticia (November 23, 2012). "Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena, a la Suprema Corte de Justicia". Excélsior. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  4. ↑ Montalvo, Tania (January 24, 2013). "El voto decisivo de Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena" (in Spanish). CNN Mexico. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
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