Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena

Alfredo Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena (born October 14, 1969) is a justice in the Supreme Court of Mexico, the highest court in said country.^[1] He is a graduate of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and Harvard University. His grandfather, Antonio Ortiz Mena, was Secretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico from 1958 to 1970.

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 for different international law firms, including Covington & Burling, Holland & Knight and White & Case.^[2] Afterwards, he acted as a public servant with 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 one of two vacant seats on the Supreme Court of Mexico. His appointment was approved by a vote of 92 percent of the members of the Mexican Senate.^[3] He was sworn in on December 1, 2012, and he will serve for a period of fifteen years.

Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena was appointed 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. During the first months of his service in the Court, he had a deciding vote in the case of Florence Cassez, a French citizen who was arrested in Mexico. In a 3-2 vote, the court ordered her immediate release, ruling that Cassez's rights were violated through unlawful media coverage surrounding her arrest.^[4]

In a criminal case, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena drafted the final opinion 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 any torture in the corresponding 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 First Chamber of the Court that the mere existence of a law that generates any intimidating effects to journalism as a profession was unconstitutional, due to its lack of specificity and negative effects upon the right to the access to information (Amparo en revisión 492/2014).

As Presenting Justice to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court, Justice Gutiérrez Ortiz Mena proposed an opinion, where he interpreted that the 2011 amendment to 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 human right 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 Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court regarding child adoption by same-sex couples (Acción de inconstitucionalidad 8/2014). The decision determined that a law that excludes same-sex couples from adopting a child is unconstitutional because it violates children´s rights and the constitutional protection to all types of families, and because it is discriminatory on the grounds of marital status and sexual orientation. In October 2014, he was elected President of the First Chamber of the Supreme Court, which position he will hold until September 2016.

He is the grandson of Antonio Ortiz Mena.

References