SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Governor Jenniffer González Colón signed Senate Bill 1096 into law on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, enacting a sweeping judicial reform that repeals Puerto Rico's 2003 Judiciary Act and replaces it with a new Judicial Branch law — over the public objection of the island's own chief justice, who had asked her to veto it as unconstitutional, Metro Puerto Rico and NotiCel reported. The bill, proposed by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz, was one of four legislative measures the governor signed that day.
Supreme Court President (Chief Justice) Maite D. Oronoz Rodríguez said she regretted the signing. She stated that the new Judicial Branch Law raises constitutional and operational concerns that were never addressed, weakens the leadership of the judicial branch, and violates the Puerto Rico Constitution, according to NotiCel's reporting of her statements. The Supreme Court, she indicated, will review the new law, assess its consequences, and evaluate the legal alternatives available to it — setting up the unusual prospect of the island's highest court weighing a challenge to a law that restructures the court itself.
What the reform actually changes
On the bill's own terms, as reported during its passage, Senate Bill 1096 sets the size of the judiciary from the top down: an 11-member Supreme Court, a Court of Appeals of 39 judges sitting in panels of three to seven, and a Court of First Instance of 338 superior judges — and it eliminates the municipal judge category that has handled local cases across the island. Most consequentially, the reform transfers the authority to appoint regional administrative judges from the Chief Justice to the full Supreme Court sitting in plenary, and shifts other judicial-department appointment powers the same way, according to NotiCel. In other words, the office of the chief justice keeps formal responsibility for running the court system while key administrative decisions move to the court's majority.
The chief justice's case against it
Oronoz Rodríguez made her objection public before the signature, not after it. On October 22, 2026, she asked the governor to veto Senate Bill 1096, saying it raises constitutional questions: in her account, the legitimate path to change the constitutional distribution of judicial responsibilities is a constitutional amendment put to the people, not an ordinary law. She said the judiciary had raised its concerns with the Legislature for months without being heard, and that the final measure leaves responsibility for the system's functioning with the Chief Justice while shifting essential administration decisions to the full court. During the legislative process, the Office of Courts Administration's then administrator, Sigfrido Steidel, testified that the model would substantially reduce the Chief Justice's administrative authority.
102 professors, and the Senate president's answer
The chief justice was not alone. A total of 102 law professors from all three of Puerto Rico's law schools — the University of Puerto Rico, Interamerican University, and the Pontifical Catholic University — formally requested a veto, citing constitutional violations, NotiCel reported; the professors argued the bill alters the design set by Article V, Section 7 of the Puerto Rico Constitution and cannot be enacted through the usual legislative process, since constitutional amendments require high legislative thresholds and ratification by voters. Senate President Rivera Schatz answered the chief justice directly on October 24: if she believes the bill harms the constitutional order, he said, it is her duty to challenge it in court once the controversy is ripe — and he questioned the propriety of her public veto call while the Supreme Court weighs the government's separate lawsuit against LUMA Energy.
Puerto Rico is a United States territory and its 3.2 million residents are U.S. citizens; millions more Puerto Ricans live in states such as New York and Florida, where Awaaz Punjab's U.S. readers also follow island politics closely. The fight in San Juan is the same separation-of-powers question being fought in Washington and in state capitals this year: who controls the courts' own house — the chief justice the constitution names, the legislature that writes the laws, or the court majority itself? The answer Puerto Rico's Supreme Court gives will be read far beyond the island.
Background: a reform years in the making, decided in days
The law the governor signed replaces the framework that has governed Puerto Rico's courts since 2003 — Law Number 201-2003, the former Judiciary Act. The bill moved through the Legislative Assembly in October, passed on final approval, and sat on the governor's desk with a decision deadline of November 4; González Colón said before deciding that she had not yet made up her mind. She signed on November 3, alongside three other measures. The political geometry is part of the record the island's press has reported openly: the chief justice was appointed under the Popular Democratic Party, while the Senate president who authored the reform leads the governing New Progressive Party — which is why critics describe the transfer of administrative power to the court's plenary as a transfer toward the court's majority, and supporters describe it as democratising decisions inside the judiciary.
What happens next
The next move belongs to the Supreme Court itself. Oronoz Rodríguez has said the court will review the new law, assess its consequences, and evaluate its legal alternatives — language that points toward a constitutional challenge or a formal court response, in line with Rivera Schatz's own challenge to take the dispute to court. Implementation questions follow immediately behind the legal ones: how the municipal judge category is wound down, how sitting judges' terms are treated, and who appoints the regional administrative judges the next time a vacancy opens. Awaaz Punjab will follow the Supreme Court's response and any filed challenge.