According to this story by Steve Terrell in the Santa Fe New Mexican, the New Mexico Supreme Court has announced that it will consider the Legislature’s petition challenging Governor Susana Martinez’s line-item vetoes of the Legislature’s own budget and the budget for higher education institutions.
The Governor will have until May 5 to file a response to the petition, and the Legislature will have until May 10 to file a reply.
The Supreme Court will hold oral argument on May 15.
The Legislature has filed an extraordinary writ petition in the New Mexico Supreme Court against Governor Susana Martinez, seeking to overturn her veto of funding for the Legislature itself and higher education institutions.
Andy Lyman of the New Mexico Political Report has this story about this legal conflict, which also contains a copy of the petition.
For further coverage, Dan Boyd has this story about the lawsuit in the Albuquerque Journal, and KRQE News 13 has this story.
And you can read about the Governor’s response in “New Mexico governor won’t be bullied by lawsuit” from KOAT Action News 7.
In Fletcher v. United States, the Tenth Circuit (in an opinion by Judge Paul Kelly) rejected claims by members of the Osage Tribe of Oklahoma that the district court improperly limited the government’s obligation to perform an accounting of revenues derived from the mineral estate beneath their former reservation.
The tribal members wanted a more detailed accounting stretching back to 1906, but the the Tenth Circuit said that trial court properly exercised its discretion to order a more limited accounting. In a 2013 opinion in this case, the Tenth Circuit said that the required accounting should not be a “green eye-shade death march through every line of every account over the last one hundred years.” (Unsurprisingly, this colorful language was written by now-Justice Neil Gorsuch).
The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico will host the premiere of a documentary called “Taming New Mexico,” a 56-minute film (narrated by Sam Donaldson) that, according to one announcement, “tells the story of now New Mexico transitioned from the Spanish-Mexican rule of law to the American legal system that New Mexico has today.” Here is the trailer.
This event (which is “black-tie-optional”) will occur on Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 5:30 p.m. at the Pete V. Domenici United States Courthouse in Albuquerque. Please RSVP by writing to [email protected].
As an aficionado of New Mexico history, it pains me that I will be out of state on May 10! But fortunately for me (and maybe for you), the film will be shown on KNME, Channel 5.1 on Thursday, May 18 at 7:00 p.m.
At the end of March, the Tenth Circuit rejected a student’s claim that the University of New Mexico and two of its employees violated her First Amendment rights by actions they took in response to an essay she wrote criticizing lesbianism.
The opinion is Pompeo v. Board of Regents of the University of New Mexico, written by Judge Lucero. I previously wrote about this case here.
Although now-Justice Neil Gorsuch was on the panel for this case, he did not attend the oral argument, nor did he participate in writing the decision.
In this article by Zoe Tillman of Buzzfeed, Tenth Circuit Judge Harris Hartz of New Mexico discusses Justice Neil Gorsuch and defends his record.
While this blog was having technical problems, last month David Lat of Above the Law conducted this interview with William Slease, chief disciplinary counsel for the New Mexico Supreme Court, who also serves as present of the National Organization of Bar Counsel.
I apologize that I haven’t posted anything here in over a month. Over the past few weeks I’ve been experiencing technical difficulties which have caused the blog to be down entirely from time to time, and which have prevented me from posting anything.
After much work on these problems, it looks like they are fixed, and I plan to begin posting here regularly soon.
Thanks for your patience!
An investiture ceremony for the newest member of the New Mexico Court of Appeals, Judge Henry “Hank” M. Bohnhoff, will be held on Monday, March 20, at 4:30 p.m. at the New Mexico Court of Appeals in Albuquerque.
Of course, the event is open to all. A reception will follow at Hotel Andaluz.
I hope to see you there!
Yesterday, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued its decision in the closely-watched case of Montaño v. Frezza. The case arose out of medical treatment that a New Mexico resident, Kimberly Montaño, received from a physician at Texas Tech University Hospital in Lubbock. Ms. Montaño later filed suit in New Mexico alleging that he committed malpractice.
The physician argued that he would have been entitled to sovereign immunity under Texas law, and asked the New Mexico courts to extend comity to Texas’ interests, and dismiss the case. The lower courts refused.
In a 4-1 opinion written by Justice Chavez, the Court agreed with the physician, holding that it would not violate New Mexico public policy to give effect to the Texas sovereign immunity statute as a matter of comity. Justice Vigil wrote a solo dissent, arguing that New Mexico’s interest in providing relief to its residents should have overcome Texas’ interest in sovereign immunity for its employees. (Chief Judge Linda Vanzi of the Court of Appeals sat by designation in place of Chief Justice Daniels, who did not participate in the case).
You can also read about the decision in this story by Martin Salazar in the Albuquerque Journal. I have previously written about this case here, here, and here.
