The U.S. Constitution declares that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but on Thursday a divided New Mexico Supreme Court gave its stamp of approval to an egregious infringement on the right to carry when it upheld Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s emergency public health declaration that included the creation of new “gun-free zones” by executive fiat.
Grisham’s original public health order suspended the right to carry in all of Albuquerque and across Bernalillo County, but after a federal judge issued an injunction barring enforcement Grisham revised her order limiting the carry ban to parks and playgrounds. That was the declaration challenged in state court by a host of citizens, lawmakers, and both the Republican and Libertarian parties, and in a 3-2 decision the state’s highest court declared that Grisham’s orders were within her authority.
At the heart of the case, the 3-2 ruling by the Supreme Court found Lujan Grisham’s orders did not overstep a state law that grants governors broad powers in response to the “occurrence or immediate threat” of serious public emergencies.
“While the governor’s desire to combat gun violence and drug abuse appears to be well-intended, there is nothing in the majority’s opinion that would restrict a future governor from taking actions that would be substantively more troubling,” Zamora wrote in her dissent.
However, Lujan Grisham spokesman Michael Coleman said the ruling affirmed the governor’s administration had acted within its legal authority in declaring gun violence and drug abuse as public health emergencies.
“The court has provided important clarity on the executive branch’s responsibilities during public health crises,” Coleman said in a Thursday statement.
“We appreciate the court’s thorough consideration of these important constitutional questions, and we remain focused on building safer, healthier communities across New Mexico,” he added.
Now, it’s important to note (as the justices on the state Supreme Court did in the majority opinion) that the plaintiffs did not “challenge Section 1 of the first Amended PHEO under the state or federal right to bear arms,” so the court largely bystepped any real investigation about whether Grisham’s carry ban violated the Second Amendment rights of New Mexicans who were suddenly barred from bearing arms while watching their kids at a park or playground; places the governor indicated were so incredibly dangerous that all firearms needed to be banned from their premises.
Instead, the majority simply noted that a federal judge rejected a request for a temporary restraining order against Grisham’s revised carry ban, saying they “read the federal district court’s ruling as supporting that the firearm restrictions in the first Amended PHEO are not unreasonable.”
Even though the plaintiffs didn’t really mount a Second Amendment argument in their bid to take down the governor’s emergency orders, Thursday’s decision could have an enormous impact on the right to carry going forward. Grisham has allowed her declared “emergency” over gun violence to expire, but there’s nothing stopping her from now re-imposing a carry ban that once again goes far beyond the scope of her amended order that was limited to parks and playgrounds.
There have been half-hearted attempts to curb the governor’s emergency powers over the past couple of years, but Grisham’s threat of a veto has sidelined those efforts. I doubt we’re going to see her fellow Democrats in charge of the statehouse in Santa Fe try to buck her authority now, but this should be a primary issue for Republican legislators and candidates in 2026. We can only hope that the governor doesn’t give them another court-sanctioned egregious violation of our Second Amendment rights to point to between now and then.
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