New Mexico Attorney General Says He Will Not Defend Gun Ban
In a statement, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez (D) announced that his office would not defend the “public health” emergency executive order signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) that essentially restricted the Second Amendment in one county in the state.
On Friday, Grisham announced that open and concealed carry laws in Albuquerque and the surrounding county were being restricted — prompting outrage from both sides of the aisle, with even Democrats admitting that there was no “public health” exception to the U.S. Constitution.
As gun rights activists began demonstrating in Albuquerque, blatantly violating the executive order and demanding that Grisham resign or be impeached for violating her oath of office — four lawsuits were filed against the order in federal court.
Meanwhile, Torrez has sent a letter to Grisham expressing his belief that the order will be found unconstitutional — while noting that his duty to the Constitution “takes precedence” over his “obligation” to defend her against these lawsuits in court.
“Though I recognize my statutory obligation as New Mexico’s chief legal officer to defend state officials when they are sued in their official capacity, my duty to uphold and defend the constitutional rights of every citizen takes precedence,” the New Mexico attorney general wrote in the letter.
“Simply put, I do not believe that the Emergency Order will have any meaningful impact on public safety but, more importantly, I do not believe it passes constitutional muster,” the letter continued.
Torrez went on to criticize Grisham for taking an action that will have little to no effect on curbing gun violence but will definitely violate New Mexico citizens’ rights.
“I encourage you to engage in a more thoughtful and deliberative process with members of the New Mexico Legislature rather than taking unilateral action that infringes on the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens while having little if any discernible impact on the underlying dynamics driving gun violence in our community,” he wrote.
On Friday, the Democrat governor admitted that she knew her executive order would face lawsuits, but tried to justify the infringement on citizens’ rights and the violation of the Constitution by citing an incident of gun violence against a child that supposedly inspired the policy.
“I’ve warned everyone that we expect a challenge, probably while you’re writing this, we’re getting a challenge, and that’s the way it should work,” Grisham said in a press conference. “But I have to take a tough, direct stand, or basically I’m just ignoring the fact that we lost an 11-year-old, another child.”
While the public health order is only supposed to last for 30 days, Grisham has said that she plans to consider extending it after seeing how well it works to curb gun violence.
