{"id":38995,"date":"2012-04-17T10:41:23","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T16:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=38995"},"modified":"2012-04-17T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T16:41:23","slug":"high-court-upholds-disqualification-of-magistrate-hopefuls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2012\/04\/high-court-upholds-disqualification-of-magistrate-hopefuls\/","title":{"rendered":"High court upholds disqualification of magistrate hopefuls"},"content":{"rendered":"

The N.M. Supreme Court has affirmed Do\u00f1a Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins\u2019<\/a> disqualification of two magistrate judge candidates who aren\u2019t attorneys, but left open the question of what to do about current magistrates in the county who aren\u2019t lawyers.<\/p>\n

The high court upheld Ellins\u2019 decision Monday<\/a>. A district judge in Las Cruces did the same<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court made no comment on the issue, but District Judge James T. Martin\u2019s ruling states this:<\/p>\n

\u201cMagistrate Judges in counties with a population exceeding 200,000 must be members of the bar and licensed to practice law in New Mexico.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That matches with Ellins\u2019 decision to kick Democrats Paul A. Martinez and Keith E. LaMonica off the ballot last month<\/a>. No other Democrats or Republicans filed for the seat, meaning an independent, minor-party or write-in candidate will be elected in November. One independent, former Court of Appeals Judge Beverly Singleman, has said she will run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of\u00a0the 2010 Census<\/a>, the county\u2019s population is over the 200,000 threshold that triggers a state law that requires magistrate judges to be attorneys. Do\u00f1a Ana County\u2019s official population in 2010 was 209,233.<\/p>\n

The Legislature passed a bill<\/a> in 2011, sponsored by Rep.\u00a0Andy Nu\u00f1ez<\/a>, an independent from Hatch, that would have raised the threshold to 250,000, but Gov. Susana Martinez<\/a> vetoed it.<\/p>\n

There are five magistrate judge positions in the county. The one that\u2019s up for election this year is currently vacant. Three of the four current judges are not attorneys, and the way Martin worded his ruling, they \u201cmust be members of the bar and licensed to practice law in New Mexico.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Supreme Court declined to tackle that issue, so the three remain judges for the time being. Whether they will be allowed to seek re-election in 2014 is unclear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The N.M. Supreme Court has affirmed Do\u00f1a Ana County Clerk Lynn Ellins\u2019 disqualification of two magistrate judge candidates who aren\u2019t attorneys, but left open the question of what to do about current magistrates in the county who aren\u2019t lawyers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[156,115,161],"class_list":["post-38995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2012-election","tag-dona-ana-county","tag-judiciary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}