The plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) declared it unconstitutional that police elements of the Mexico City They can enter homes without a search warrant when there is a complaint of animal abuse.
The Court invalidated a fraction of article 10 Bis of the Mexico City Animal Protection Law, added by Decree 495, published on December 16, 2020, which was challenged by the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), and which regulated cases in which the animal surveillance squad of the Secretariat of Citizen Security could enter a closed place without a court order when there was flagrante delicto.
Said norm established that it corresponds to the Secretariat of Citizen Securitywithin the scope of its competence, integrate, equip and operate surveillance brigades animal to respond to the needs of protection and rescue of animals at risk, and in cases where there is flagrante delicto, their entry into a closed place without a court order will be justified.
The CNDH argued that the aforementioned precept violated the right to legal certainty and the principle of legality, since, by mandate of the Federal Constitution, the National Code of Criminal Procedures is the order in charge of establishing the norms that must be observed during the investigation. , prosecution and punishment of crimes.
The precept of the Law for the Protection of Animals of the #CDMX that regulated cases in which the animal surveillance brigade could enter a closed place without a court order when there was flagrancy, for invading the exclusive power of the Congress of the Union. pic.twitter.com/69Tv0tJ7jQ
– Supreme Court (@SCJN)
March 15, 2022
In this sense, the SCJN determined that the aforementioned precept, by regulating aspects related to the investigation of crimes, invaded the exclusive power of the Congress of the Union to issue the sole legislation on criminal procedure matters, established in article 73 of the General Constitution. .
The plenary session of ministers stressed that the invalidity decreed will have retroactive effects to the date on which the analyzed rule came into force, so it will be up to the competent legal operators to decide and resolve each specific case subject to their knowledge, in accordance with the provisions of the National Code of Criminal Procedures.
The SCJN indicated that this protected the constitutionally established order, by preserving the power of the Congress of the Union to generate uniformity in criminal procedural matters through a single legislation and, thus, give legal certainty to the governed.
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