Tag Archives: State: New Mexico

In October 2011, the New Mexico Republican Party filed a lawsuit challenging the
constitutionality of New Mexico’s new state campaign finance laws.

Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice: This year, the New Mexico state legislature considered legislation to offer individuals and corporations tax credits for donating to nonprofits that distribute private school scholarships. That idea, also promoted by Gov. Susana Martinez, was supported by 62 percent of surveyed voters in New Mexico.

LifeNews.com: A recent investigation conducted by Project Defending Life with the help of Operation Rescue has revealed that tax money received by the University of New Mexico (UNM) flows freely to the university-run UNM Center for Reproductive Health (UNMCRH) abortion clinic in Albuquerque.

LifeSiteNews.com: The only abortion clinic in Santa Fe will close as of December 23, 2011, when abortionist Lucia Ceis retires from private practice. The last day abortions will be done is December 16, 2011.

Interlochen Public Radio: But Elk Rapids Attorney Steve Francis has been scrutinizing the local law and he says there’s a certain group of Traverse City business owners who might want to take notice.
“The secondary effect of this particular ordinance is really the restriction of Christian speech and Christian belief, and that’s what really concerns me,” Francis says . . . He volunteers as an attorney with a national group called the Alliance Defense Fund, which defended a Christian couple who ran a photography studio in New Mexico. The owners ran afoul of a similar law when they refused to photograph a civil union between two women.
“So we argued that to force this couple to take pictures of a lesbian commitment ceremony, which was against their religious beliefs, was forced speech,” he says. “The human rights commission found against this couple, fined them $6,600 and that’s being appealed in state court in New Mexico. That’s the kind of thing that really concerns me with this particular ordinance.”

LifeNews.com: The pro-life group Operation Rescue has released a second undercover call it recorded exposing how abortion businesses are using money from Medicaid to pay for late-term abortions.

LifeSiteNews.com (includes video): An undercover audio investigation has been released in which a New Mexico abortion clinic worker tells a potential client that an $8-9,000 elective abortion at 27 weeks gestation would be fully covered by taxpayer Medicaid dollars.

KOAT Albuquerque: The meeting was packed and emotional. Many in attendance spoke out against the American Civil Liberties Union and a proposal that would bar churches from offering their facilities to county departments that need large places for events.

KOAT Albuquerque: Bernalillo County commissioners will decide whether or not to ban public ceremonies that are held in places of worship at a meeting on Tuesday.

Christian Newswire: Operation Rescue has released documentation which shows that the Sandia Foundation acts as landlord for Southwestern Women’s Options, a late-term abortion clinic owned and operated by Curtis Boyd and his wife, Glenna Halvorson Boyd. The Sandia Foundation is a respected non-profit corporation based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with roots in the Catholic Church.

ABQJournal Online: adets in the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department will head over to their boss’s church today for a graduation ceremony. And the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is urging Sheriff Dan Houston to switch the venue to avoid “religious coercion.”

New Mexico Daily Lobo: A UNM student said he plans to protest “Mass on the Grass” to be held at the Duck Pond Aug. 28, calling it a violation of the separation of church and state.

ABQJournal Online: adets in the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department will head over to their boss’s church today for a graduation ceremony. And the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is urging Sheriff Dan Houston to switch the venue to avoid “religious coercion.”

LifeSiteNews.com: Health officials in New Mexico appear to be resisting an investigation of abortion facilities that have placed multiple botched-abortion calls to 911 in recent months, according to pro-life leaders. Meanwhile, the pro-life leaders say a report has emerged of a woman dying at one of the facilities just last month.

KOB.com: Monday night, Albuquerque city councilors heard and rejected an appeal from Defined Fitness who said having The Palms Gentleman’s Club next to them violated city ordinance. The two businesses share a parking lot. The argument revolved around Defined Fitness’ claim their daycare is actually a school and city ordinance clearly states adult businesses are not allowed near schools.

LifeNews.com: att Bowman, a pro-life attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, commented on the billboard controversy and said the whole incident outlines the grief fathers bear in the abortion process. “Regardless of the prudential character of this particular billboard, it does highlight a deep and festering wound in our society: the harm that abortion causes to the fathers of aborted children,” he said. “Most attention on post-abortion psychological harm is focused on the mothers, but men similarly have intense grief due to abortions of their children, both when they participate and when the abortion is done against their wishes.”

Forbes.com: An Alamogordo man can keep his controversial billboard along the city’s main thoroughfare – for now, a state district judge has ruled

Late Tuesday a federal district court in New Mexico declared unconstitutional a provision of Albuquerque’s system of public funding for elections that provides taxpayer funding to legislative candidates based on opposition speech.

Liberty Counsel: Liberty Counsel has filed a brief requesting summary judgment in the lawsuit Taylor v. Roswell against the Roswell Independent School District, for retaliating against a Christian group called Relentless in Roswell. The school punished and suspended members of the group for buying and giving fresh Krispy Kreme doughnuts with Bible verses to each of their teachers.

KOB.com (includes video): An anti-abortion protestor was attacked outside an abortion clinic in Albuquerque on Tuesday and the incident was caught on tape.

Seattlepi.com: A state district judge Thursday ordered an Alamogordo man to immediately take down a billboard that implies his ex-girlfriend had an abortion.

ABC News (includes video): Fultz’s attorney Todd Holmes said the court commissioner has stated he will recommend jail time if Fultz does not remove the billboard by June 17. They are planning on objecting to the ruling.

Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy: Greg A. Fultz put up a billboard showing himself holding what appears to be empty space, with the words “This Would Have Been A Picture Of My 2-month Old Baby If The Mother Had Decided To Not KILL Our Child!” and some endorsements (apparently later removed) from pro-life groups, including the words “PRO LIFE” and “RIGHT TO LIFE.” . . .

Spero News: Attorney Matt Bowman of the Alliance Defense Fund, a prolife organization, spoke to the grief borne by the fathers of aborted children. “Regardless of the prudential character of this particular billboard, it does highlight a deep and festering wound in our society: the harm that abortion causes to the fathers of aborted children,” he said. Bowman noted, “Most attention on post-abortion psychological harm is focused on the mothers, but men similarly have intense grief due to abortions of their children, both when they participate and when the abortion is done against their wishes.”

LifeNews.com: Matt Bowman, a pro-life attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, commented on the billboard controversy and said the whole incident outlines the grief fathers bear in the abortion process. “Regardless of the prudential character of this particular billboard, it does highlight a deep and festering wound in our society: the harm that abortion causes to the fathers of aborted children,” he said. “Most attention on post-abortion psychological harm is focused on the mothers, but men similarly have intense grief due to abortions of their children, both when they participate and when the abortion is done against their wishes.”

AP: A New Mexico man’s decision to lash out with a billboard ad saying his ex-girlfriend had an abortion against his wishes has touched off a legal debate over free speech and privacy rights.

KOB.com: Clovis Municipal Schools has approved an application for a gay-straight alliance club.

Stamford Advocate: The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico is asking Clovis Municipal Schools to approve a Gay-Straight Alliance club at Clovis High School before the school year ends May 24.

The Republic: Curriculum-based student clubs to meet at Clovis High School during the school day — a policy change the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico said raised concern because it was done at the same time students proposed forming a Gay Straight Alliance.

LifeSiteNews: Lawmakers in the New Mexico state House of Representatives approved a measure that gives limited protection to unborn victims of violence when their mothers are the subjects of a crime. The measure, known locally as the “Little Isaac” Act, was a legislative response to a mother’s brutal murder in 2009, and was opposed chiefly by Planned Parenthood.

KOAT.com: “Similar bills have been filed and voted down the past few years. Many people in the audience Thursday said it would take a Republican majority in the legislature to pass them.”

KOAT.com (includes video): “Dozens rallied to defend the traditional definition of marriage in Santa Fe on Valentine’s Day.”

OneNewsNow: “A conservative attorney thinks now might be a good time for New Mexico to amend its constitution so that traditional marriage is protected . . . “clearly, to recognize a so-called ‘gay marriage’ from another state as legally binding would be a first in that state and would run afoul of New Mexico’s history, laws, and public policy,’ contends Matt Barber of Liberty Counsel.”

KOAT: “Thousands of people who work for the state could lose benefits for their families. In 2003, Gov. Richardson allowed state workers in domestic partnerships to buy into the state’s insurance plans for their partners.”

Albuquerque Journal: “Outlawing gay marriage already was headed to the Legislature’s inbox, but [an attorney general's opinion] supporting the validity of some same-sex unions could give the issue a higher profile . . . Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington, said Wednesday that King’s opinion has galvanized opponents of same-sex marriage and could help his efforts to get a measure through the 2011 session making such marriages illegal.”

“The marriage of gay couples from other states and countries where it is allowed can be legally recognized in New Mexico, the Attorney General’s Office said in a legal opinion issued Tuesday.”

Medical News Today: “An Albuquerque, N.M., Public Schools committee voted in favor of a revised policy that will allow contraception to be dispensed at school-based clinics by clinic staff who are not APS employees, the Albuquerque Journal reports.”

ABQJournal: “It cuts across all of that — stepparents, divorced parents, live-in relations, baby sitters, nannies,” says Rep. Al Park, an Albuquerque Democrat, who along with Sen. Mark Boitano, an Albuquerque Republican, plans to introduce a bill next legislative session to more clearly define what legally constitutes a parent. “It is a basic rule of law that the natural parents and the legal guardians have a paramount right to raise their children almost without interference. You don’t get a special right merely by being a roommate or a caregiver.”

KVIA: “It was not the rosary, but how a Mayfield High School student wore it that got him suspended . . . Torres said his wooden rosary was draped around his neck last week for all to see when his teacher told him to conceal it . . . ‘They told me it was gang-affiliated,’ Torres said. ‘And that I wasn’t allowed to wear it because it was an identifier to other gangs.’”

Las Cruces News-Sun: “Reactions to two electronic billboard messages Perez has paid to have displayed have ranged from appalling to agreement, with many expressing surprise and shock. The message that has drawn reactions from many who have seen it: ‘More Mosques, Less Jobs, Vote Democratic???’”

“About 200 members of a Roswell church are protesting discipline against students who tried to leave doughnuts with religious messages for their teachers.”

LifeSiteNews: “A man was arrested Saturday, August 28, outside a late-term abortion facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after he allegedly threatened to shoot two pro-life women who were offering help to abortion-bound women.”

Religion Clause: “In 2006, in Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal government cannot block a New Mexico church from using a hallucinogenic tea for religious purposes, and remanded the case for further proceedings. (See prior posting.) Today’s Albuquerque Journal reports that the case last week was finally been dismissed by a New Mexico federal district court after the parties entered a 21-page settlement agreement.”

Associated Press: “Three states – Washington, New Mexico and Utah – allow illegal immigrants to get licenses because their laws do not require proof of citizenship or legal residency. An Associated Press analysis found that those states have seen a surge in immigrants seeking IDs in recent months, a trend experts attribute to crackdowns on illegal immigration in Arizona and elsewhere.”

LifeSiteNews: “Two Albuquerque late-term abortionists who worked for George Tiller’s Women’s Health Care Services (WHCS) in Wichita, Kansas, before it permanently closed last year have dumped their Kansas medical licenses. Troy Newman, the president of Operation Rescue, has speculated that the move was deliberately made in order to place the pair outside the disciplinary jurisdiction of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts (KSBHA).”

“One San Francisco judge ordering it so was an arbitrary, heavy-handed act with no other basis than a demand from a powerful activist group. Unless this is overturned, the same playbook will be used to try to institutionalize group marriages, polygamy, and every other iteration of human relationships until marriage is utterly obliterated.”

Associated Press: “A coalition of seven western states and three Canadian provinces on Tuesday offered its most detailed strategy yet for controlling greenhouse gas emissions blamed for climate change, saying they hope it will stand as a model for national systems in the United States and Canada.”

LifeNews: “After a dustup this week that saw the Obama administration authorize abortion funding in high risk insurance pools in at least two states, and then subsequently backtrack and promise no funding would occur, pro-life advocates are demanding a new law to ensure that doesn’t happen. After National Right to Life exposed new federally-funded health insurance plans that would have covered elective abortions in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, the Department of Health and Human Services promised the Obama administration would ensure no funding takes place.”

LifeNews: “Officials in the Obama administration are scrambling to respond to evidence showing the new health care law President Barack Obama signed will fund elective abortions in Pennsylvania and New Mexico — and possibly in more states. The Obama administration promises that won’t happen.”

“U.S. District Judge Judith Herrera, who is not related to the secretary of state, had ruled last August that the state’s threat to prosecute the Albuquerque groups for not registering as political committees under the state Campaign Reporting Act violated the constitutional rights of New Mexico Youth Organized and the SouthWest Organizing Project.”

Liberty Counsel: “Late yesterday, Liberty Counsel filed a complaint in federal court in New Mexico to stop the unconstitutional censorship of a group of students at Roswell High School and Goddard High School called ‘Relentless in Roswell.’ … School officials never objected to the group’s activities until one day before class, students handed out small rubber models of preborn babies.”

Mercury News: Robert Norse’s Nazi salute lasted fewer than five seconds before he was removed from the Santa Cruz City Council meeting in handcuffs. But the Santa Claus-bearded gadfly’s free speech lawsuit against the city has lasted more than six years and may be destined for the U.S. Supreme Court. On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. circuit Court of Appeals will convene a rare 11-judge panel to consider how thick-skinned and tolerant public officials need to be before they can silence and evict dissenters from meetings.

9th Circuit panel ruling: Norse v. City of Santa Cruz, 586 F. 3d 697 (2009)

KRQE.com: “A group of gay activists gathered outside a Rio Rancho elementary school Wednesday morning to show support for a 5th grader with lesbian parents . . . ”

Paul Horwitz, Of Football, “Footnote One,” and the Counter-Jurisdictional Establishment Clause: The Story of Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (April 14, 2010). Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1589757

“This article is a chapter in the forthcoming collection First Amendment Stories. It tells the story of Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, a case in which the United States Supreme Court struck down a school policy establishing an election mechanism that enabled student-led prayers before football games. It offers both a doctrinal and a human perspective on the case.”

Christian Post: “School district officials in Roswell, N.M., said religious discrimination was not a factor in their decision to stop Christian high school students from distributing baby dolls resembling fetuses on campus.”

KOB: “An Albuquerque judge has fined a group responsible for organizing a Nob Hill adult film festival. After three years, the judge decided the theatre that has hosted the Pornotopia film festival is not zoned for adult entertainment, but organizers say the show will go on.”

“That’s because New Mexico next year could have a governor who would veto it. According to a survey of the six gubernatorial candidates, only Lt. Gov. Diane Denish would sign the measure should lawmakers approve.”

Alamogordo Daily News: “More than 800 pages long, the bill would give unmarried same-sex and opposite-sex couples the legal protections and benefits of married couples on issues ranging from medical decision-making to adoption and child support. It faces opposition from Republicans and conservative Democrats, but Gov. Bill Richardson has voiced support . . . Critics, including the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Alliance Defense Fund, argued that domestic partnerships are a stepping stone to same-sex marriage.”

Business Week: “A proposed ban on campaign contributions from lobbyists, state contractors and those seeking government subsidies has run into opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union.”

ACLU: “For the first time, the U.S. is participating in a process that allows the United Nations to review the human rights records of all member states . . . The ACLU and its affiliates will also play roles in upcoming consultations in New York, Alabama, New Mexico, California, Michigan, Texas and Washington, D.C., addressing a range of human rights issues affecting millions of people in the United States . . . Today is the first step in a process that hopefully will bring U.S. policies in line with international human rights standards.”

EWTN: “New Mexico’s bishops are opposing an effort by Gov. Bill Richardson, a Catholic, to create domestic partnerships for homosexual couples. ‘The bishops are instructed by Catholic teachings not to give any ground that would lead to same-sex marriage,’ said Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.”

The ACLU is encouraging its supporters to contact New Mexico legislators and urge support for the “Domestic Partnership Rights & Responsibilities Act, SB 0012.”

ADF attorney Jordan Lorence appeared on the Michael Medved Show to discuss the Elane photography litigation involving a small company in New Mexico that refused to photograph a same sex “wedding ceremony.”

The MP3 runs about 34 minutes.

ADF Media Information Page: ADF to appeal court decision against NM photographer

WORLD Magazine: “In New Mexico, the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission found a Christian photographer guilty of discrimination for refusing to photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony. Julea Ward is filing a lawsuit against Eastern Michigan University after the university dismissed her from its counseling program because she would not affirm homosexual behavior. According to the Alliance Defense Fund, the right of conscience—the liberty to reject participating in abortion or supporting same-sex relationships—may be the next big religious liberty issue.”

Baptist Press: “Religious liberty suffered a setback in the U.S. but won a victory in Canada in December in two closely watched cases involving the legal tug-of-war between religious rights and ‘gay rights’ . . . Attorneys allied with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group, are involved in both cases . . . ‘Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to predatory legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,’ ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence said in a statement.”

Examiner.com: “Word of the decision by District Judge Alan M. Malott comes from the Alliance Defense Fund, which promised an immediate appeal of the decision against the Christian photographer and her husband.”

Christian Post: Attorneys with Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund announced last week their plan to appeal the ruling, insisting that Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to “predatory legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs.” “The Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience,” commented ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence. “Should the government force a videographer who is an animal rights activist to create a video promoting hunting and taxidermy?”

New Mexico Independent: “The bill proposing a constitutional amendment was filed by Sen. William Sharer, R-Farmington . . . ”

Queerty: “The Alliance Defense Fund, which is representing the Huguenins, has promised to appeal. And we actually agree with ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence’s argument: ‘Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to predatory legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs. The Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience. Should the government force a videographer who is an animal rights activist to create a video promoting hunting and taxidermy? American small business owners do not surrender their constitutional rights at the marketplace gate, nor can the government make people choose between their faith and their livelihood.’”

CitizenLink: “Jordan Lorence, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), said it exposes the threat such laws pose to religious liberty. ‘The court showed very little respect for that,’ he said, ‘and said that this was no different than a caterer serving food and was liable to this same-sex couple.’”

Associated Press: “The City Council in Las Vegas, N.M., has unanimously rejected a proposal by Mayor Tony Marquez to open each meeting with an invocation.”

LifeSiteNews: “‘Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to predatory legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,’ said ADF Senior Counsel Jordan Lorence. ‘The Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience. Should the government force a videographer who is an animal rights activist to create a video promoting hunting and taxidermy? American small business owners do not surrender their constitutional rights at the marketplace gate, nor can the government make people choose between their faith and their livelihood.’”

ADF Attorney Jordan Lorence writing at the Academic Freedom File: “Also, the District Court rejected the religious liberty claims under the federal and state constitutions. Again, the court diminishes the impact of the state’s actions against the photography company, with its statements that Elane Photography is merely being asked to photograph something for a fee. There is no sense that people can be asked by their customers to do something with their businesses that violate the business owners’ beliefs. A photographer who is a vegetarian might decline to create photos for the promotional materials of a meat packing plant. If New Mexico law made that an act of discrimination, the District Court opinion says that there is no First Amendment protection. That can’t be right, and that is why we will appeal this decision to the New Mexico Court of Appeals.”

Eugene Volokh has discussed the ruling in Elane Photography LLC v. Willock in four recent posts, beginning with: Compelling Speech by Commercial Photographers, Freelance Writers, Musicians, and So On.

WorldNetDaily: “A district judge in New Mexico has affirmed a state Civil Rights Commission order that a small photography company pay $6,600 for refusing to violate the owners’ Christian beliefs by photographing a lesbian ‘ceremony,’ even though same-sex marriage isn’t legal in the state . . . ‘Christians in the marketplace should not be subject to predatory legal attacks for simply abiding by their beliefs,’ said ADF senior counsel Jordan Lorence. ‘The Constitution prohibits the state from forcing unwilling artists to promote a message they disagree with and thereby violate their conscience.’”