SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico will continue banning direct public access to the Statehouse in favor of remote internet video access as legislators gather this week to rewrite the state budget.
A divided Supreme Court rejected a petition Tuesday from nearly two dozen rank-and-file lawmakers to keep the doors of the Legislature open to the general public with a reduced limit on occupancy to guard against the coronavirus.
A bipartisan panel of leading lawmakers and their legal advisers insisted that public attendance would make it nearly impossible to avoid close human contact that allows COVID-19 to spread.