Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is now saying she’s going to keep the COVID practices in place even after a vaccine is available. Grisham says, “These are good public health behaviors that will prevent the spread of influenza.”
New Mexicans are enlisting legislators to call for an extraordinary session. Here’s a post from NM Extraordinary Session Facebook page (posted August 8 at 2:31 pm):
“This week, the Governor stated that she wants to continue all of her current restrictions whether we get a COVID vaccine or not.
She said: “Let’s hold these behaviors beyond the vaccine, because these are good public health behaviors that will prevent the spread of influenza, that will prevent the spread of colds… we should start thinking about this as the right public health path forever irrespective of COVID.”
Let’s be clear about what that means.
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s orders have been made under the auspices of her executive emergency powers. The NM Supreme Court has upheld her orders because of that interpretation. Only in a crisis could an elected official get away with shutting down places of business, schools, churches, and declaring gatherings of 5 people or more a violation of the law.
That’s because under any ordinary circumstances, these orders violate the constitutional right to freedom of association.
(Governor Grisham notably made exceptions to her own rule for mass protests this summer, but has made no such accommodation for public gatherings of groups she disagrees with. The fact is that it’s the constitutional right of any group of people to publicly gather and peacefully protest, and no elected official should be picking who is allowed to exercise their rights and who isn’t.)
So why would the Governor imply that she intends to suspend the right to freedom of association indefinitely?
All this statement tells us for sure is that the Governor’s intentions are to not lift these restrictions, regardless of COVID case numbers.
