On Tuesday, November 23, the New Mexico Supreme Court blocked citizens requests to form grand juries in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties to investigate Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the Albuquerque Journal, the high court granted Gov. Lujan Grisham’s motion for a stay that blocks petitions from citizens of the three counties to form “citizen led” county grand juries to investigate the governor’s actions.

New Mexico Allows Citizen Grand Juries

New Mexico is one of only six of America’s 50 states that allows citizen grand jury proceedings. According to the Ballotpedia.Org website, the process of forming citizen grand juries is outlined in Article II, Section 14, of the New Mexico Constitution. 

In part Article II, Section 14 states, “… a grand jury shall be ordered to convene … upon the filing of a petition there[of] signed by not less than the greater of two hundred registered voters or two percent of the registered voters of the county, or a grand jury may be convened in any additional manner as may be prescribed by law.” The norm is for citizens to petition to convene grand juries to indict individuals for alleged criminal wrongdoing, not to question the actions of the governor for protecting public health.

Chaves, Eddy and Lea Counties Challenges to the Governor’s Actions

The petitions from Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties ask for citizen grand juries to be convened to challenge “the governor’s use of emergency public health orders to require face-mask wearing and impose business capacity limits in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.,” states Albuquerque Journal Capitol Bureau Chief Dan Boyd.

These petitions, however, seem to be more politically motivated than based on science. They do not question health experts and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) agreement that pandemic precautions are still necessary, and possibly even more necessary than previously suggested since the discovery of the new heavily-mutated Omicron coronavirus variant. 

Gov. Lujan Grisham’s general counsel Holly Agajanian referred to the petitions from Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties as nothing more than a “ ‘creative scheme’ that lacked solid legal ground,” states an article published in the Carlsbad Current-Argus.

Republican Senator David Gallegos Part of the Effort to Challenge the Governor
Republican Senator David Gallegos, of Eunice, was one of several local individuals leading the drive for the citizen grand juries to investigate alleged “malfeasance” on the governor’s part. He stated however, that his involvement in the effort has been as a private citizen and not in his role as a state senator.

State Sen. Gallegos has not been alone in his criticism of “Gov. Lujan Grisham’s imposition of masking mandates and other public-health requirements” during the COVID pandemic, states an article published at CurrentArgus.com. He and other Republican legislators have taken a political stance suggesting that the governor’s actions infringe on personal freedoms. 

However, Gov. Lujan Grisham has steadfastly defended her actions as only doing what is necessary to curb the spread of coronavirus in all of its forms. The governor’s legal counsel goes even a step further, “While the citizens filing the petitions may disagree with the governor’s approach to the pandemic, none of these allegations even remotely demonstrate that she has committed any crime.”

Gallegos expressed frustration at the Supreme Court’s unanimous decision last Tuesday to grant the request for a stay submitted by Gov. Lujan Grisham’s office. “You would think at some point in time the people could be heard,” Gallegos told the Albuquerque Journal.

The “Stay” Is Only a Small Victory for the Governor

Although this small victory for Gov. Lujan Grisham was delivered by the NM Supreme Court this week, last week the high Court delivered a major blow to Gov. Lujan Grisham, ruling that the New Mexico State Legislature “deserves a leading role” in how the NM state government spends its more than $1.6 billion in federal pandemic aid.

In the ruling the New Mexico Supreme Court sided unanimously with a bipartisan team of lawmakers who said that it was wrong for Gov. Lujan Grisham to make decisions about spending the federal aid funds without seeking input from the NM legislature. Chief Justice Michael Vigil delivered a short order that froze the COVID pandemic relief funds until legislative appropriations can be made. However, Gov. Lujan Grisham retains her veto power on any spending legislation.