In this February 16 file photo, House Speaker Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, speaks with the Republican leadership during a debate in the House of Representatives. Egolf is a co-sponsor of the legislation to create a state civil rights law. (Eddie Moore / Albuquerque Journal)
Copyright © 2021 Albuquerque Journal
SANTA FE – A proposal to introduce a New Mexico Civil Rights Act – one of the most debated bills of the session – narrowly survived a key Senate committee late Wednesday and moved closer to final roundhouse passage.
The legislation, House Bill 4, arose out of protests against racism and police brutality last summer.
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This would make it possible to file lawsuits in a state court seeking monetary damages for violations of the New Mexico Bill of Rights such as free speech and equal protections under the law.
Agencies that insure public schools and district governments firmly opposed the bill, claiming they were already at extensive legal risk from malpractice.
The bill cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee 5: 4 and will stand next to the entire Senate, the last significant hurdle in front of the governor’s desk. The House passed Bill 39-29 last month.
Leon Howard of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Mexico urged lawmakers “to think about the most vulnerable people in our state” when considering the bill.
“This law represents better and more timely access to justice,” he said on Wednesday.
Opponents of the bill, however, said the move would do nothing to improve policing, while exposing taxpayers to costly reimbursement after the fact, on a range of potential claims, not just law enforcement.
Santa Fe District Attorney Greg Shaffer called on Senators to make changes to the bill to avoid “exposing local governments to potentially crippling risk” that could cause them to lose some insurance coverage.
“This shift in risk affects all citizens,” Shaffer said. “More money on insurance or claims means less money on essential services or higher taxes.”
The Judiciary Committee made some changes to the bill, but rejected other amendments, including those approved by House Speaker Brian Egolf, a Santa Fe Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill.
For example, the committee made it clear that the $ 2 million limit in damages would apply to anyone involved in an “event” that gave rise to a claim. In other words, one person was unable to circumvent the $ 2 million limit by making multiple claims related to the same violation.
However, the senators rejected an amendment that would have made it optional rather than mandatory for a court to award attorneys’ fees to a successful plaintiff who had received monetary damages.
Egolf said he supported both amendments as part of a compromise with skeptics of the bill.
Another co-sponsor of the measure, Democratic Senator Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces, opposed the change in legal fees.
In the end, with the support of five Democrats and opposition from three Republicans and Democratic Senator Daniel Ivey-Soto from Albuquerque, the proposal was passed 5-4.
Ivey-Soto, who proposed most of the amendments under consideration on Wednesday, said lawmakers “need to listen to some concerns from people who have tried to make constructive comments on the bill”.
The proposal will be submitted to the entire Senate for consideration. If approved by the Senators, it will be sent back to the House for the Senate to review amendments to the bill.
The lawyer Egolf is faced with an ethics complaint in connection with the legislation. A retired judge has accused him of a conflict of interest and alleged that he and his law firm could benefit from the passage of the law through their work in civil rights cases.
Egolf moves the complaint to be dismissed, claiming the allegations are baseless and based in part on a section of law that does not apply to the unpaid New Mexico lawmakers.
House Bill 4 emerged from the work of a state civil rights commission established shortly after the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis last year. Floyd, a black man, died after a white police officer pressed a knee to his neck and sparked protests across the country, including New Mexico.
According to the proposed law, qualified immunity as a defense against claims under the state civil rights law would be excluded.
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