LAS CRUCES - Republican leaders in the New Mexico House of Representatives have filed a lawsuit in objection to new rules imposed by Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, last week after it was announced that one House member and four staffers had tested positive for COVID-19.
The lawsuit alleges that the new rules, which require all debate to be conducted remotely and prevent most members from coming onto the floor, are a violation of members’ constitutional rights. And, it asks the state Supreme Court to issue a stay, blocking the new rules while it deliberates the case.
Republicans note that rules in the House are different than those in the Senate, where more members are allowed onto the floor. In a news release Sunday, Jan. 31, House Rules & Order of Business Committee Chairman Daymon Ely, D-Corrales, referred to the lawsuit as a “political distraction” and vowed to continue as scheduled.
Mapping out a plan
Legislation to create a new bipartisan commission to lead the upcoming redistricting effort has been introduced in the House, with a companion bill to come this week in the Senate.
House Bill 211 is the recommendation of a task force created last year headed by former Supreme Court Justice Edward Chavez and retired Court of Appeals Judge Roderick Kennedy. It calls for a new committee that would draw maps for the congressional, legislative and Public Education Commission districts. They would draw three or four different maps for each district for the Legislature to choose from, without making any changes, and submit to the governor.
Redistricting is required every 10 years after the Census to compensate for population shifts. The last two times the state has gone through the process, partisan wrangling between a Republican governor and Democratic legislatures resulted in the process being decided in the courts, with taxpayers picking up the tab for multi-million dollar legal fees.
Protecting indigenous women
A task force formed to investigate the disappearance of indigenous women in New Mexico would be continued for another year with expanded membership under a bill introduced in the House.
House Bill 208 would add to the current seven-member board of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force and ensure that it continues its work for another year.
“The MMIW Task Force was clear in its report that there are serious gaps in the data available to accurately identify cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls,” said sponsor Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo. “We’ve only started this critical work, and this bill ensures the task force’s continuation, and ultimately, its policies that will address this destruction of our first nation peoples.”