[JURIST] The Supreme Court of Mexico [official website, in Spanish] ruled 9-2 on Monday to uphold [press release, in Spanish] a Mexico City law allowing adoptions by same-sex couples. Justices in the majority found that same-sex adoptions do not violate [El Universal report, in Spanish] the Mexican Constitution [text, PDF], which, regardless of the familial structure, provides equal protections to heterosexual couples, single mothers, divorced parents, grandparents and same-sex couples. The majority explained that it would be discriminatory to find same-sex couples less capable parents than heterosexual couples. Attorney General Arturo Chavez [official website, in Spanish] challenged the law on the basis that it violated the rights of adopted children, denying them protections from discrimination and guarantees to a traditional heterosexual family model.

Last week, the court ruled 9-2 that same-sex marriages [JURIST news archive] performed in Mexico City must be recognized nationwide [JURIST report]. The court found that although Mexico’s 31 states are not required to allow same-sex marriages to be performed in their jurisdictions, they must confer marital rights to same-sex couples married in Mexico City. Earlier this month, the court ruled 8-2 that Mexico City’s same-sex marriage law is constitutional [JURIST report]. The law, passed last year [JURIST report], was challenged by Chavez, who had argued that allowing same-sex marriages violates the guarantee of familial integrity under the Constitution. The court rejected this argument, finding that the constitution did not specify what constituted a family and found that the regulation of marriage licenses was a state function. In December, Mexico City’s legislative assembly [official website, in Spanish] approved the same-sex marriage law. The legislation allows for marriage, adoption, inheritance and other economic and social rights. The provision also seeks to end discrimination based on sexual orientation.