Court invalidates municipal charge in Juchitán for telephone antennas

The Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation declared the invalidity of Article 60, fractions I, II, and III, of Law Number 373 of Revenues for the Municipality of Juchitán of the State of Guerrero, for the 2026 Fiscal Year, which imposed annual fees for licenses and permits for telephony antennas and masts. The resolution was issued by a unanimous vote of nine in the session of July 6, 2026, and was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation on Monday, October 26, 2026, in the Judicial Power section, starting on page 124, under the case file of Constitutional Controversy 124/2026.

The charge annulled by the Plenary Court

The challenged rule, published in the Official Gazette of the State of Guerrero on December 23, 2025 (number 102, supplement XVI), established an annual payment calculated in multiples of the current Unit of Measure and Update (UMA), with three scenarios:

• Up to 10 meters in height: 250 times the UMA.
• Structures over 10 meters: 5 times the UMA for each additional meter.
• Internet relay antennas up to 10 meters: 5 times the UMA.

The Court concluded that this was not a general fee for construction licenses applicable to any civil work, but rather a specific and recurring economic burden on telecommunications infrastructure. The annual nature of the charge was decisive: in the opinion of the Plenary, it was not exhausted upon the initial review of a work, but rather continuously conditioned the permanence and operation of the antennas.

Telecommunications, a matter reserved for the Federation

The project, prepared by the reporting minister Yasmín Esquivel Mossa, maintains that Articles 6, section B, 28, and 73, fraction XVII, of the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States establish exclusive federal leadership in the matter. The ruling specifies that the reform regarding organic simplification, published on December 20, 2024, extinguished the Federal Telecommunications Institute but did not transfer the matter to states or municipalities: it only reassigned functions within the federal sphere.

The ruling recognizes that city councils retain powers regarding urban development, land use, and construction licenses pursuant to Article 115 of the Constitution, but emphasizes that these are not absolute. The dividing line established by the Plenary Court is as follows:

• An ordinary construction license, applicable to any civil work, may fall within the municipal sphere.
• An authorization or fee specifically designed for antennas, masts, towers, ducts, poles, or fiber optics affects a federal matter.
• The collaboration provided for in the Law on Telecommunications and Broadcasting, published on July 16, 2025, mandates facilitating deployment, not taxing it.

Background, voting, and effects

The lawsuit was filed by the Federal Executive Branch on February 16, 2026, through legal counsel Esthela Damián Peralta; it was admitted on February 23, and the hearing was held on June 17, 2026. The Plenary resumed its own jurisprudential line: unconstitutionality action 3/2023 (Morelia, Michoacán), constitutional controversies 49/2024 to 78/2024 (municipalities of Coahuila) and, notably, Constitutional Controversy 72/2024, regarding article 22, fraction XV, of the Revenue Law of Cuatro Ciénegas, Coahuila, which has an almost identical structure.

The vote was unanimous, with nuances: ministers Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra and Lenia Batres Guadarrama dissociated themselves from the considerations regarding construction licenses, and president Hugo Aguilar Ortiz dissociated himself from paragraphs 34, 35, 75 to 79, 93, and 94. Herrerías Guerra announced a concurring vote.

Regarding the effects, the invalidity will take effect upon notification of the resolutive points to the Congress of the State of Guerrero, and the judgment must also be notified to the Municipality of Juchitán, the authority responsible for applying the annulled revenue law. The ruling orders its publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation, the Official Gazette of Guerrero, and the Judicial Weekly of the Federation.

The precedent has national scope: any municipal revenue law that expressly identifies telecommunications infrastructure and imposes its own regime of licenses, permits, or fees is exposed to the same declaration. For operators, the criterion reduces the risk of differentiated local burdens that fragment network deployment; for municipalities, it limits a source of income and confirms that their margin in this matter is limited to general urban planning regulation.

Source: Official Gazette of the Federation, October 26, 2026, Judicial Branch section, p. 124 (official reference: Constitutional Controversy 124/2026).