New Mexico Gov’s office argues universal childcare lawsuit is ‘imaginary constitutional crisis’

Lawyers for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and the state Early Childhood Education and Care Department on Thursday argued that a Republican lawsuit before the state Supreme Court over the state’s universal childcare program is “less a legal challenge than a political lament.”

Three Republicans — former gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez, former state House of Representatives candidate Zac Anaya and state Sen. Steve Lanier (R-Aztec) — in April filed a lawsuit alleging that Lujan Grisham violated the “separation of powers” in state government by implementing the universal childcare program without the Legislature’s approval. Lawyers for the administration countered that the Legislature had long given the Early Childhood Education and Care Department approval to expand which families are eligible for childcare assistance.

The trio lost their case in district court in June, when a judge ruled that the case was moot, in large part because the Legislature earlier this year passed a law establishing a framework for the program. Soon after, they appealed to the New Mexico Supreme Court. The court docket shows that no hearings have yet been scheduled.

After the June ruling, Lujan Grisham’s chief general counsel Holly Agajanian told Source NM that Rodriguez’s suit was a “political disagreement wrapped in a constitutional argument.” In a Supreme Court filing from Thursday, she argued along those same lines.

She wrote that the state established a childcare program more than 30 years ago, in 1992, and offered assistance through grant funding to families who made up to 85% of the state’s median income. In 2007, Agajanian wrote, the state expanded eligibility and provided state funding for doing so.

The Republicans’ argument that the governor implemented this program last year without legislative approval, she wrote, is “an imaginary constitutional crisis.” She requested that the Supreme Court toss the lawsuit.

In an email to Source NM, Lujan Grisham spokesperson Leah March wrote that the governor “remains assured that ECECD had the authority to roll out the program in 2025. The state court agreed that the lawsuit had no merit, and we are confident that the Supreme Court will, too.”

Rodriguez, the Republican who unsuccessfully sought the party’s nomination for governor in June, told Source NM he disagrees with the state’s position that universal childcare marked the latest step in increasing childcare assistance eligibility. If that was the case, he asked, why did the Legislature pass a law this year aimed directly at universal childcare?

“I think they tried to mask their response with a lot of history and gobbledygook of various funding levels with various changing of eligibility,” he said Friday. “Playing with eligibility, a few percentage points here and there, is not the same as a complete overhaul of childcare.”