By / July 20, 2020 / New Mexico, News, Politics

On Monday, it was reported that the New Mexico Restaurant Association had won their lawsuit against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, which accused the Governor of targeting the restaurant industry.

According to KRQE News, “The lawsuit requested a temporary restraining order that now stops the governor from carrying on with the recently amended public health order. This means for the next 10 days, restaurants can open for indoor dining at 50% capacity. The reason the judge permitted restaurants to reopen for the next 10 days was because the State failed to file any response by the set deadline of July 20.”

New Mexico Restaurant Association’s attorney Antonia Roybal-Mack said the Governor “is making decisions without fact and as a result of that, those decisions are void,” also saying that the Judge’s order “is the right decision for restaurants.”

“After the July 30 hearing hopefully (the injunction) can be extended. I think the evidence is going to be clear to the judge and to everybody else that restaurants are not the cause of COVID-19 spread,” said Roybal Mack.

It’s unclear what will happen after the 10-day mark, however, the public health order in question expires on July 30th.

Previously, New Mexico Restaurant Association CEO Carol Wight estimated that the health order would plunge the state’s restaurant industry into further decline possibly wiping out 20% of all restaurants in the state permanently.

After the Court’s decision, New Mexico House Republican Leader Jim Townsend applauded the injunction, saying, “One person cannot make all the decisions for New Mexico, the Governor was elected to work for the people and unfortunately some of her decisions have really hurt New Mexicans.” He continued, “If the Governor and her staff had not made this political, I believe that our state would have continued to slow the spread as we were just a few weeks ago.”

UPDATE

Gov. Lujan Grisham petitioned the New Mexico Supreme Court to grant a “Stay of Temporary Restraining Order” following a lower court judge allowing restaurants to reopen indoor dining.

According to KOB 4, “The state Supreme Court granted the stay, and ordered the governor and the suing parties, which including the New Mexico Restaurant Association, to submit their arguments by next week.”