Our issue with New Mexico’s Supreme Court retention (we’d vote no)

There are two New Mexico Supreme Court justices on your fall ballots this year. They are David K. Thomson and Shannon Bacon and they are running for retention (not against another candidate). It is likely that they’ll be retained, but we have a bone to pick with them and New Mexico’s Supreme Court as a whole.

What’s the issue? We just can’t reconcile the fact that New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham usurped the Legislature’s role of (among other things) creating new government programs (in this case universal “free” childcare). The Gov. did this in November of 2025 but the Legislature didn’t have a chance to act until the 2026 session. In fact, the Legislature added a provision on inflation that means the program won’t be “free” to everyone anymore.

The Supreme Court should have had a hearing (at least) and should have struck the Gov.’s clear abuse of power down. What would that look like? We don’t know, but the Court chickened out and refused to even hear the case. That’s unfortunate and unacceptable. We’d take issue with ANY Justice that would ratify this kind of abuse of government without so much as a hearing. It just so happens that Thomson and Bacon are up for retention this fall. Their cowardice in defending New Mexico’s constitutional processes SHOULD be punished.