The New Mexico Supreme Court this week struck down a Republican bid to reverse the rules underpinning New Mexico’s growing universal childcare program.
The two-page ruling issued Wednesday ends a lawsuit filed by former Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, who argued the state overstepped its bounds by implementing universal childcare through rule changes before the state Legislature agreed to fund the program.
The suit became a political flash point between Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the Republican candidates who filed it. In addition to Rodriguez, the others who filed the suit were fellow onetime Republican gubernatorial hopeful state Sen. Steve Lanier and Rio Rancho businessman Zachary Anaya, who lost his GOP primary bid for a state House seat in June.
“This candidate lost in state district court, lost in the Supreme Court, and lost his bid to become the next governor of our state,” Lujan Grisham wrote in a statement posted to social media Thursday. “This means universal child care in New Mexico is here to stay, and families have no more reason to fear that this life-changing program will be stripped away from them.”
The lawsuit was first rejected in June by 2nd Judicial District Judge Elaine Lujan, who agreed with the state in ruling the issue was moot because lawmakers had already acted to approve and fund the program. It was refiled to the state Supreme Court days later.
Daniel J. Chacón/New Mexican file photo
The Supreme Court justices did not publish an opinion in the case, but all five concurred in the ruling.
Rodriguez on Thursday criticized the ruling, arguing the state’s highest court disregarded the idea of having separate branches of government and allowed the executive branch to circumvent the Legislature.
“Why have a Legislature at all? Why elect representatives? Why hold hearings? Why even debate legislation? Heck, why require votes?” he asked in an interview. “Why pretend there are separate branches of government? … Five Democrat justices can simply allow a governor to act first, bypass the Legislature, and then never explain the legal basis for permitting it?”
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Deb Haaland celebrated the ruling and restated her commitment to furthering Lujan Grisham’s universal childcare program.
“New Mexico Republicans and their candidates are not serious about lowering costs for families — and instead are trying to take opportunities away from them,” she said in a statement. “We should be focused on strengthening and expanding cost-saving opportunities.”
