Ignacio Ramirez to To the First Citizen District Judge of this Capital , present, December 14, 1876

Decree declaring the validity of the judicial acts of the Lerdo government, with certain exceptions.

A DECREE.

Department of Justice and Public Instruction.—Section 1.

To-day I say the following to the first citizen district judge of this capital:

The citizen general, second in command of the national Constitutional army, in charge of the supreme executive power, having in view your note, in which you advise that proper measures be decided upon in regard to the validity or invalidity of the judicial acts of the administration of Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada, and concerning what shall be done with the orders issued by authorities, whose removal has not yet been expressly and especially agreed upon by this department; having also in view the plan of Tuxtepec as reformed at Palo Blanco, and particularly the third article, which repudiates the congress elected in July, 1875, and which does not recognize any authority whatever in the functionaries and employés of said administration, as well as the decision arrived at in respect to this matter by the citizen General Porfirio Diaz in a meeting of ministers; the principles of the science and the precedents of our public law, the highly beneficial designs to society, and lastly the grave and delicate interests, as well of private individuals as of the nation., which are identified with the acts and business of the judicial branch, and which, for the same reason, have always merited particular care on the part of the legislator, he has been pleased to dictate the following measures:

• First. All judicial acts of the administration of Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada are declared valid, and as such shall produce the effects which they would have in conformity with the law.
• Second. Those acts are excepted which may have been in manifest opposition to the plan of Tuxtepec as reformed at Palo Blanco, as well as those founded upon laws issued by the congress of 1875 and. 1876. Both are to be considered null and without legal value whatever, and shall be declared thus in the respective proceedings by the competent judge, upon the petition of parties in civil suits, and officially in criminal cases.
• Third. The sentences denying amparo, which are based upon, the extraordinary faculties conceded to the said administration, are especially declared null, as well as the attachments and impositions of fines decreed in virtue of the said faculties.
• Fourth. The proceedings instituted against citizens who served in the regenerating army are also null, if they were instituted on this account, or if the charge made against the defendants should be that of having lent services to the revolution or of having sustained the saving principles of the latter, or of assisting in any manner in establishing its security and stability.
• Fifth. In the foregoing cases the judges who in the first instance may or shall have knowledge of the existence of these facts will officially put the accused at liberty, the sentence which shall in fact be pronounced remaining subject to the revision of the next superior court under its responsibility, and this revision will also take place in regard to the judicial proceedings spoken of in the second section.
• Sixth. If, in the proceedings treated of by the foregoing, sufficient evidence should appear for presuming the accused to be guilty of a crime of the common or federal order, but which may not be of those known as political, the proceedings instituted will continue until the end, but only for the crime of that nature, with absolute subjection in all respects to the laws in force, all other charges being dismissed.
• Seventh. The orders issued by illegitimate authorities who may not yet have been removed should be carried out with the promptness and efficacy which the law requires in all cases where the treasury is interested, or which affect the prompt administration of justice, and in those cases which conform to precedents, the court observing in regard to such cases the preceding sections in so far as they are applicable.
• Eighth. The prosecution of the proceedings above recommended by the presiding judges does not amount to the definite recognition of the jurisdiction which they may claim, it being in all cases subject to the removal which may afterward be determined of the personnel of the courts and tribunals, such prosecution having at the present time force and vigor as that emanating from the law by, virtue of an appointment made by the legally constituted authority, which I state to you in answer to your said note for your information and exact fulfillment.

Liberty in the constitution.