On Monday, the New Mexico Supreme Court denied a court challenge to the 2020 constitutional amendment that gave the governor full authority over the Public Regulation Commission (PRC), the most powerful regulator of utilities in the state.
The five-member, all-Democrat state Supreme Court is nearly entirely comprised of Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s appointees.
Justices C. Shannon Bacon and David K. Thomson were appointed by Lujan Grisham in 2019, Justice Julie J. Vargas was appointed in 2020, and Justice Briana H. Zamora was appointed to the Court in 2021. The only justice not appointed by Lujan Grisham is Chief Justice Michael E. Vigil, who was elected by the voters in 2018.
The amendment transformed the formerly elected commission to a three-member panel appointed by the governor. According to the Santa Fe New Mexican, the petition was filed by the Indigenous Lifeways, New Mexico Social Justice & Equity Institute, and the Three Sisters Collective.
“This case presents a unique circumstance where there’s a real risk of abuse of power,” said the groups’ attorney Sarah Shore. “There’s a transfer away from the people who in their own constitution reserve rights to themselves to the political branches. This is not a circumstance where the Legislature is proposing to change rights that the people already delegated.”
“Shore argued that the amendment should be struck from the state constitution because it illegally rolled several reforms into one ballot question for voters to decide. She said most voters are neither lawyers nor lawmakers and were misled since the ballot measure did not reference the effect on the public’s right to elect commission members,” reported the Associated Press.
The justices denied the request, claiming they did not believe the amendment amounted to logrolling, which would have been illegal.
Now, the PRC will be entirely controlled by the Democrat governor, who is sure to use it as a political weapon, as she has done in the past with her hostility toward energy producers.
All I have to say is, they’re going to reap what they sow, what goes around, comes around.
AMEN!
But unfortunately, we will also pay the price
She was not elected….she cheated and so did the sos…..
MLG owns the NM Supreme Court, this was very apparent during COVID when the court supported MLG’s unconstitutional stripping of citizen’s rights. If NM doesn’t support the US Constitution its statehood should be revoked.
No trial put before our SC is going to end in justice. Have we not learned that by now? So why isn’t this being pushed to a Circuit or Federal Court like the vaccine/OSHA case was?
Southern NM should petition to become part of Texas.
Albuquerque and north can become part of Calirado.
MLG can then see if she can honey pot her way into Rachael Levine’s position. MLG is beginning to look like HRC’s demon sister.
You do NOT have to be a lawyer to see how more and more constitutional freedoms are slipping away in our state. It’s shut up, sit down and do as I SAY, not as I do. The likes of MLG does not ‘act’ in behalf of we the people – there’s no debate. There’s only one side to issues. Common sense and constitutional rights have taken leave of absence.
Welcome to the world of the little dictator, MLG.
The people of New Mexico surrendered their authority and voted to give their power over to the governor so that she might select a “professional” commission. We had a commission member that was a drunk, a drug addict, and a car thief. The Democrats used his debauchery to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot and of course, they won. Welcome to New Mexico politics everyone. Powerlessness to the people.
Criminals do criminal stuff. New Mexicans seem to only learn through force, just look at history. The major metro areas of this state FORCE policy on regions of the state that they know NOTHING about and it has been as such since before we were even a state.
Nothing surprises me anymore with this state. Michelle Wuhan Gruesome and all her commies including the unelected president will get theirs in the end. She ruined our beautiful state.
Why do New Mexicans have such a defeatist attitude when it comes to our government? We accept all these laws and elections with barely a whimper against them. It’s time for Republicans and others to speak out and stand up and fight!
That has to start with people standing up. For a long time, I was one of the only people around me rejecting the mandates. I had grown men in grocery stores physically threaten me for not wearing a mask and not standing in breadlines. The mandates WERE NOT “health related.” They were a test to see how much people would accept. And we failed MISERABLY. We complied and worse, we turned against each other! That is what “they” wanted!
A recent example of a “win” that was citizen driven was towards requiring the C19 shots for school kids. A few activist groups organized floods of calls and emails to Scrase’s office….to the point that he begged one of the organizers to “stop telling your people to call me and sent me stuff.” She informed him that we would stop calling and emailing when he publically announced that he would not add the covid shots to the school schedule. The public shamed and harassed him into submission!
It’s really that easy! You want better from your elected officials? Get on them (ideally with a number of others) and make them do their jobs. We had some success in Albuquerque with demanding that the commissioners not vote in public safe spaces (homeless parks).
yes, this is our responsibility as american citizens to rule over our public servants and make sure they obey our founding documents. the people failed to hold them accountable during the coronahoax, so they are moving forward with more scams. the executive branch can not make law, only laws for their administration. executive orders are null void and without effect. only the legislative branch can make law, and these laws must be constitutional or they are null void and without effect.
Agreed. I stood up and had to be prepared every time I shopped to defend myself against the mask freaks. It was exhausting. It still is. People here are stuck in their little world of fear. I did have signs on my vehicle and attend every protest I could and still will. And, yes, I believe we failed miserably also.
Watch for news headlines about the PNM sale to Avengrid going through with no opposition from the PRC. Avengrid will help further erode our oil and gas industry by lobbying our Dem. legislature to help them build a massive “green” infrastructure here. Pretty soon, our landscape will be filled with solar fields, wind farms, and all the waste they produce in plastic and metal.
New Mexico Republicans don’t have a real leader in Steve Pearce. Our GOP needs a solid team of outspoken people from diverse backgrounds: Hispanics, Blacks, and non-minority folks who can traverse this state and educate people about the benefits of conservatism.
Eddy Aragon for Republican Chair
The flip side is that when there is a Republican governor he or she can also appoint people to this.
There are four boxes that protect our freedom:
– The soap box
– The jury box
– The ballot box
– The cartridge box
Our free speech is restricted by the courts and stifled by a woke mob.
The courts deny hearing our cases and
complaints by ruling that we have no “standing” to be heard.
The ballot box is controlled by minions of the Georgi Soros funded .org’s , by ballot harvesting, mail-in ballots and Dominion machines.
It’s starting to look like the cartridge box is our only option.
We are ready to disco.