Mexican Supreme Court Allows People to Challenge Date of Birth, Make Themselves Younger

The Supreme Court of Mexico has established jurisprudence which will allow people to challenge the date and time of birth based on their "social reality."

The legal precedent arose as result of challenges against the Sinaloa Family Code, which already allowed for the possibility of revising a date of birth. However, previous legislation only enabled people to make themselves older than they had been on their original birth documents, not younger.

According to Capital CDMX, several individuals challenged the Code in an attempt to have their birth dates modified to make them younger. In some cases it was due to conflicting data the plaintiffs had received from their parents, and in others it was due to a simple error on their official birth certificate.

Though all of the cases were originally denied and dismissed, the impacted persons continued their legal battle, eventually arguing they should be allowed to change their official documents based on pre-existing laws surrounding gender self-identification.

After a lengthy fight, Mexico's highest court was required to make a decision and establish jurisprudence on the complex issue, ultimately publishing a legal thesis which indicated that "variations in [a person's] date of birth" can be accommodated so long as a court can establish that their date of birth is in "disagreement with social reality."

While the court has made it clear that there will be some limitations, noting that they do want to "avoid abuses that may lead to fraud, deception or even criminal offenses," though it is currently unclear what guidelines will be established or how they might be enforced.

The Supreme Court goes on to write that applications will be considered or approved as long as such changes are not being made "in bad faith" with a desire on the part of the applicant to "use that change in order to create, modify or extinguish rights or obligations to the detriment of third parties."

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