Mexico’s Supreme Court has closed the last pending case over whether town halls in Yucatán may put nativity scenes in public buildings, without ever ruling on the core question.
The full court voted 8-1 this week to accept the withdrawal of a challenge against the town government of Mocochá, a small municipality northeast of Mérida. The man who filed the case dropped it earlier this year.
That leaves open whether Christmas displays set up by local governments break the constitutional principle of a secular state. The court could still take up the issue in a future case.
The dispute began in December 2020, when Mocochá’s town hall set up a nativity scene with figures of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph at the base of the municipal building. The town also posted photos of the display on social media.
In January 2021, a resident filed an amparo, a type of constitutional lawsuit. He argued that showing Catholic symbols in a public space violated the separation of church and state, and said he did not practice that religion.
A Long Road to Mexico City
The case reached the Supreme Court in May 2022. In June 2023, a group called the Asociación de Abogados Cristianos filed a friend-of-the-court brief arguing that the display did not violate anyone’s religious freedom.
The complainant filed his withdrawal through the court’s online system March 10 and confirmed it March 19.
Justice Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra drafted a ruling that would have kept the case alive. She argued that a matter of public interest, already taken up by the high court, should not end just because the person who filed it wanted out without giving a reason.
Most of her colleagues disagreed. Justice Yasmín Esquivel noted that the Constitution allows amparo cases to move forward only at the request of the affected party. Justice Giovanni Figueroa said a complainant can withdraw at any stage before a final ruling.
The ‘Grinch’ Lawsuits
Mocochá was one of three Yucatán municipalities sued over Christmas displays set up in 2020. Similar cases targeted Mérida and Chocholá, a town southwest of the capital.
The Chocholá case drew national attention in 2022, when then-Justice Juan Luis González Alcántara Carrancá proposed barring that town from spending public money on religious symbols. Critics nicknamed it the “Grinch” lawsuit. The Mexican Episcopal Conference called the proposal absurd, opposition politicians accused the court of trying to steal Christmas, and an online petition against it gathered more than 97,000 signatures.
The court postponed the vote. In June 2023, the man behind the Chocholá suit withdrew, saying he and his family had received threats. That same month, Chocholá residents traveled to Mexico City to protest outside the court. The Mérida case was dropped as well.
The justices who closed the Mocochá file belong to a very different court. After Mexico’s first judicial elections in June 2025, the bench shrank from 11 justices to nine, all of them chosen by voters for 12-year terms.
Christmas as Usual
For now, nothing changes for holiday decorations in Yucatán. Each December, Mérida sets up a large nativity scene on the Plaza Grande alongside the city’s Christmas lights, and smaller towns often set up their own displays outside municipal buildings.
Fast Facts
- Case: amparo en revisión 214/2022, against the town government of Mocochá
- Vote: 8-1 to accept the complainant’s withdrawal
- Original display: a nativity scene at Mocochá’s town hall, December 2020
- Related cases: suits against Mérida and Chocholá, both withdrawn
- Key question left unanswered: whether public nativity displays violate Mexico’s secular state
- Supreme Court: 9 justices, elected by popular vote in June 2025
Sources: Por Esto!, Excélsior, ACI Prensa, Expansión, The Guadalajara Reporter, Americas Society/Council of the Americas