The mayor of the Route 66 town of Grants, New Mexico, said he would let non-essential stores reopen Monday, flouting the governor’s order to close them until mid-May because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The Associated Press reported:
Grants Mayor Martin “Modey” Hicks said he’s giving businesses permission to reopen on Monday and is ordering the police force in the city of about 9,000 people to prevent any State Police officers from issuing lockdown violation citations.
“The governor is killing us. She’s totally killing us,” Hicks said. “So we have no choice. So right now, we are reopening. Let State Police come down here.”
Hicks made the announcement after 81 businesses in Grants signed a petition calling for the reopening of the city that sits on historic Route 66, about an hour west of Albuquerque. […]
Hicks said he is working with Cibola County Sheriff Tony Mace — a Lujan Grisham critic — and will use city resources to fight the state against enforcement of any closure order. State Police can cite any of Grant’s 80 or so businesses if they violate the state’s health emergency closure order.
A few mayors and municipalities in New Mexico have issued statements or resolutions, demanding the governor allow non-essential businesses to reopen. However, those have been legally non-binding and have no teeth. Grants would be the first case of a city’s leader openly advocating the breaking of the law.
A few observations to add as a New Mexico resident and decades as a journalist:
- Grants sits near the southern edge of several Native American tribal territories that have been hammered by the disease. The northwest part of the state contains by far the highest concentration of COVID-19 cases. It’s a safe conclusion Grants lies in a higher-risk area.
- It remains to be seen whether all those 81 businesses will reopen Monday, risk citations, then risk fines that start at $100 for a second violation and a fine of up to $5,000 if they’re caught flouting the order a third time.
- There also is a question of whether there will be much of a client base to serve even if they reopen. Multiple recent polls have shown 60% to 70% of the U.S. residents say they’re concerned about businesses reopening too quickly during the pandemic.
- State police have been serving cease-and-desist orders to nonessential businesses that are open illegally during the public health order, not local police. So Mace’s vow to not let his deputies shut down businesses is moot.
- The sheriff said he would not interfere with state police activities. So what role Mace would have with Hicks’ efforts remains unclear.
- Absent in the story is a comment from Grants’ police chief. Small-town police forces tend to defer to New Mexico State Police during bigger investigations because they have more resources and better-trained officers. Because of that, it’s questionable whether Grants officers will confront state troopers if they cite non-complying businesses.
- Claims of unconstitutionality over the state’s emergency health order are on poor footing. New Mexico’s constitution gives the governor broad powers to combat an epidemic. The 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives governors wide latitude on non-federal matters.
- Legally, Hicks might be on the hook on criminal charges of incitement or disorderly conduct. It’s doubtful that would happen, but not impossible, either.
So Monday should be an interesting day for folks in a certain town in Cibola County.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if cooler heads prevail and Hicks backs down — especially when Lujan Grisham has enlisted a bunch of mayors and appointed 15 other business owners to an economic advisory council to advise her on a phased-in reopening of the state’s economy.
(Image of Grants, New Mexico, by Mary Madigan via Flickr)
I fully expect outlaws to gallop down the main street – shooting up the state governor’s office.
Nice article. As You put it, seems kind of senseless for the City Mayor to do something like this, especially being in such a high risk area being close to the high risk Indian reservations. Maybe there is something personal between the mayor and higher authorities I and others not aware of. In Illinois our Governor JB has continued our shutdown of staying in homes till end of May now. It seems like he might be toying with ideas of allowing some openings. Will have to wait and see. We all be in this together. It will pass, sooner than later, if we adhere to the strict guidelines imposed.
“Claims of unconstitutionality over the state’s emergency health order are on poor footing.”
A religious component has been a part of every lawsuit filed against the Governor’s order. I would argue that forcing the closure of churches violates Article 2, sec. 11 of the State Constitution and the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution, which in the NM version preserves the right to worship according to the dictates of an individuals “conscience.” Nowhere does it say a Governor’s order supersedes this.
In fact, in my study of the NM Constitution I found nothing that gave the Governor any power whatsoever over an epidemic. It does define a disaster emergency, but that couldn’t qualify here because it defines this as “a period when damage or injury to
persons or property in this state, caused by
enemy attack, is of such magnitude that a
state of martial law is declared…” Definitely not what we’re dealing with now! Some would argue however, that State Police issuing citations for non-criminal activity, for instance allowing people to patronize a licensed establishment, without citing a specific law passed by the legislature, is akin to Martial law.
No law can be expected to deal with all eventualities, so it is not surprising the New Mexico constitution does not mention pandemics. Did the term exist in 1911 – the year the NM constitution was drawn up? Most of what constitutes NM today did not exist then, including the Mother Road.
As for people getting upset because bans on congregating include doing so for religious reasons, when any rationality in any religion can be shown to exist then that will be the time to consider “the right to worship according to the dictates of an individual’s ‘conscience’ “. Here in the UK the completely clear rules on our lockdown were deliberately broken by Jews claiming the right to attend en masse at an Orthodox Jewish wedding. They were told not to congregate for the ceremony, but they ignored the police instruction, considering themselves above the law. They were not arrested – as they could well have been – or issued with on-the-spot fines, but just sent on their separate ways.
With the fifty states in the US, I am surprised there have not been more state governors going their own way – and city and town mayors (even sheriffs?) flexing their ‘democratic’ muscles. Here in the relatively small UK, Scotland is doing its own thing. I wonder if the Covid-19 germs know about the border with England.
We are a state rich in history and it’s preservation. Much of what was around then, especially in the rural areas outside of Grants, is still around today. Acoma and Laguna Pueblo, El Malpais, Mount Taylor, El Morro and the inscriptions therein, would be fairly recognizable to the people from 1911 if they were to time warp to present day.
You are right of course about the Mother Road. Highway 66 was commissioned on November 11, 1926, a mere 14 years and change after we officially became a state. But the groundwork was already being laid down in 1911, especially by A.L Westgard and his Trail to Sunset, published a year or so before. That route so happened to head West from Albuquerque, more or less precisely along the I-40 corridor today straight towards, you guessed it, Grants (then called “Grant”). This stretch of I-40 also happened to have replaced the 1937 route of, yes siree, Route 66. Of course he was tracing many routes already in existence, but much of his route, from Romeroville to Pecos, through Glorieta to Santa Fe down El Camino Real, through the Pueblos south into Bernalillo and eventually ABQ, would become known as 66 at various points in it’s 60 year history here.
As far as your views on religion, I respect it. I don’t agree, but I respect your right to believe or not believe. That’s the beauty of our system here, as opposed to the UK, where there is no First Amendment equivalent. And I respect the need to be cautious – which I believe everyone will continue to be, some for the rest of their lives. But I also think it’s time we start treating adults like adults, and let them make these decisions for themselves. Everybody knows the risk by now – if they wish to go to a wedding, let them be! Freedom is messy, it’s frustrating, at times infuriating. But, as Churchill once said, it’s absolutely the worst system on Earth – except for all the others. And I thank God every freaking day that I was born under that system – at home of course, in self- isolation…
Not sure if there is existing beef with the Mayor. He’s in the same party, Democrat, not that matters much in local politics (Or rural areas – Democrats here tend to be conservative leaning). I know the sheriff isn’t a fan – but that was concerning Gun control, specifically the Background check and Red Flag bills.