 |
| Helton |
Attorneys representing the Lea County Sheriff’s Office and Lea County Sheriff Corey Helton fired back at the writ of mandamus petition filed by New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas at the end of July.
The Attorney General (AG) filed the court action hoping to compel the sheriff and deputies to enforce the “Public Health Emergency Orders” created by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham.
On Aug. 10, the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered a response be filed by close of business Monday. Attorneys Jeffrey Baker and Renni Zifferblatt of the Baker Law Group filed the response on behalf of the sheriff Monday morning.
The response to the “emergency petition” offered multiple rebuttals to the allegations put forth by the AG, including about seven alleged factual errors — which form the basis of the AG’s argument — included in the filing. The response also included an affidavit from Helton dated Aug. 3. “We responded vigorously to the attorney general’s allegations. We’ll see what happens since the state now has three days to respond. I guess the Supreme Court rules then,” Helton said. Helton also pointed out the many factual errors in the AG’s filing.
“Some of the allegations weren’t factual,” Helton said. “Hopefully the Supreme Court will see that.”
In part, the response to factual allegations includes:
- “Sheriff Helton has not ‘requested that restaurants open their facilities in violation of the state’s public health emergency orders.’”
- “Sheriff Helton has not issued any ‘orders to city businesses which countermand state law.’”
- “Sheriff Helton has not ‘encouraged’ his deputies to violate public health orders.”
The response filed Monday also points out the governor is constrained by state law, and does not have the power to operate outside of it, in particular to the public health emergency orders (PHEOs) in this case. “While the governor has broad authority over the executive power over the state, the governor’s actions will be invalid if they are outside her constitutional statutory authority,” the response quotes.The response also states the same orders would not be legal if given to a municipal police agency, so therefore are not legal in respect to the sheriff’s office.
“If the governor ordered these municipal police agencies (incorporated within Lea County) to enforce the PHEOs, such orders would not be enforceable under the PHEOs. If the orders would not be lawful as to the municipal agencies, they are not lawful with respect to the Sheriff,” the response points out. “Absent constitutional or statutory language providing such authority, the petition necessarily fails.”
No comments:
Post a Comment